Collidine

Part of speech: noun

Definitions

1. Any of several isomeric organic compounds made of a pyridine ring carrying three methyl groups, used as solvents and bases in chemical synthesis
2. A class of trimethyl-substituted pyridine molecules employed as organic bases and reagents in laboratory chemistry
3. One of a family of nitrogen-containing aromatic compounds with three methyl groups on a pyridine ring, applied in chemical manufacturing

Etymology: Collidine is a chemical name, and its story starts with bone. In 1846, the German chemist August Wilhelm von Hofmann was working with a substance produced by heating bones, and he isolated a family of nitrogen-containing compounds that later became known as pyridine bases. Collidine is one of the members of that family, and the name was built from the pieces of its chemical structure rather than from a classical word meaning the same thing. The word's Greek element is "kolla" (glue), which appears in the name because some of these bone-derived bases were once associated with the substances used to make animal glue. The ending "-idine" marks it as a nitrogen base in the pyridine series, the same pattern that gives the family its shared suffix. Chemists formed such names deliberately, so the word is a technical coinage from Greek roots rather than an ancient term.