Chloroalkanes

Part of speech: noun

Definitions

1. Chemical compounds composed of carbon and hydrogen atoms bonded to one or more chlorine atoms; substances often used as solvents, intermediates, or refrigerants in industrial applications; members of the class of organochlorides characterized by chlorine substitution on an alkane backbone
2. Organic molecules formed by replacing one or more hydrogen atoms in saturated hydrocarbons with chlorine atoms; these compounds are typically utilized in chemical synthesis, manufacturing, and as solvents; a subset of halogenated alkanes distinguished by their chlorinated carbon chains
3. Saturated hydrocarbons that have chlorine atoms attached in place of hydrogen atoms; commonly employed in various industrial processes including solvent production and chemical intermediates; a group of organohalogen compounds where chlorine is bonded to an alkane structure

Etymology: Chloroalkanes are named by simple combination: "chloro-" from the Greek "khlōrós", meaning pale green or greenish-yellow, which is also the source of "chlorine" because the gas was a pale yellow-green. Chlorine is the element that makes these compounds what they are, so the word tells you the chlorine has been added to an alkane. The second half, "alkane", is itself a blend of older German coinages. German chemists built "Alkyl" from "Alkohol", which in turn came through Arabic "kuḥl", a fine powder used as eyeshadow, and then through Medieval Latin, where "alcohol" first meant a fine powder before it came to mean a distilled spirit. The "-yl" and "-an" endings were added in German to form the names of hydrocarbon groups, and English adopted "alkane" from German. Put together, "chloroalkane" is a straightforward English compound of "chloro-" and "alkane".

Synonyms: chlorinated alkanes, alkyl chlorides, haloalkanes