Chloroacetate

Part of speech: noun

Definitions

1. A salt or ester formed from chloroacetic acid, a compound used in the manufacture of herbicides, dyes and other chemicals
2. Any chemical compound derived from chloroacetic acid by replacing its acidic hydrogen with a metal or an organic group
3. The anion or ester of chloroacetic acid, an industrially important building block in organic synthesis and agrochemical production

Etymology: Chloroacetate is a plain chemical compound name, built by joining two existing parts. The first part, "chloro-", comes from Ancient Greek "khlōrós", meaning pale green or greenish-yellow, which is also the source of the element name chlorine, a gas that was named for its colour. The second part, "acetate", comes from the Latin "acetum", meaning vinegar, through the Latin "acetum" family of words for sour things, and in chemistry it names a salt or ester of acetic acid. Put together, the word simply means an acetate in which a chlorine atom has been attached to the acetic acid part. Chemists coined such names systematically in the modern period, so the word describes the molecule's structure rather than carrying a story of its own.