Carbamides

Part of speech: noun

Definitions

1. A class of organic compounds containing the functional group characterized by a carbon atom doubly bonded to a nitrogen atom with the formula R1R2N-C(=O)R3
2. These substances are often used in agricultural fertilizers and pharmaceuticals due to their properties
3. Typically associated with urea and used for enhancing soil fertility and in chemical syntheses

Etymology: Carbamide is simply another name for urea, the compound that gives urine much of its nitrogen, and its name is a deliberate chemical construction rather than an old folk word. The "carb-" comes from "carbon" and the "amide" part comes from "amide," a class of nitrogen-containing compounds whose name is itself built from "ammonia." That ammonia link runs back a long way: the Egyptian god Amun was rendered by the Greeks as Ammon, and Romans linked the desert oasis of Siwa, where his oracle stood, to a salt they called "sal ammoniacus." Ammonia took its name from that salt, and chemists later formed "amide" from it by adding the French-style suffix "-ide," which marks a chemical compound of this kind. Carbamide thus fuses two chemical roots: one for carbon, the element at the heart of urea's structure, and one for the amide family, so the word announces both the carbon atom and the nitrogen-bearing amide group. Its plural, "carbamides," simply refers to several such compounds, which is how chemists use it when discussing urea and its relatives.

Synonyms: ureas, carbamide compounds