Chloromethane

Part of speech: noun

Definitions

1. A colorless, flammable gas used as a refrigerant, solvent, and in chemical synthesis; an organic compound consisting of one carbon atom bonded to three hydrogen atoms and one chlorine atom; a volatile chlorinated methane derivative applied industrially and experimentally
2. A simple halogenated hydrocarbon with a carbon atom bonded to three hydrogens and one chlorine, utilized in industry as a refrigerant and chemical intermediate; a colorless gas with solvents and refrigerant applications; a chlorinated methane compound used in organic chemistry
3. A chlorinated methane molecule characterized by one chlorine and three hydrogen atoms bonded to carbon, serving as a refrigerant, solvent, and chemical feedstock; a volatile organic compound commonly used in laboratories and industry; a colorless, moderately toxic gas with industrial utility

Etymology: Chloromethane is a chemist's compound name built from two existing pieces: "chloro-", from the Greek "khlōros", meaning pale green or yellowish green, and "methane". The chloro- prefix was used in chemistry to mark a chlorine atom in a molecule, a reminder of chlorine's pale greenish colour as a gas. The chloro- element itself was named for that colour, and the prefix carried the same association into compound names. "Methane" has an older chemical history of its own. It combines "methy-", from the Greek "methu", meaning wine, with the suffix "-ane", which chemists used for saturated hydrocarbons. The "methy" part came from "methylene", a word coined in the nineteenth century, and the wood-spirit origin of methyl compounds, which were first obtained from distilling wood, is why the Greek word for wine appears at all. Chloromethane was named in this systematic way, so the word is a straightforward chemical compound rather than a word with a folk history.

Synonyms: methyl chloride