Deethylated

Part of speech: adjective, verb

Definitions

1. Referring to a substance or compound that has undergone the removal of an ethyl group through a chemical process; describing a molecule altered by eliminating an ethyl substituent; indicating a chemical state after an ethyl component has been detached from the original structure
2. Characterizing a compound that has lost an ethyl group via metabolic or synthetic reactions; pertaining to a molecule that no longer contains an ethyl portion due to chemical modification; used to describe molecules with their ethyl groups removed in chemical transformations
3. Denoting the condition of a chemical entity following the extraction of an ethyl fragment; relating to substances transformed by removal of ethyl groupings; describing molecules altered by the disconnecting of an ethyl moiety during chemical processing

Etymology: "Deethylated" is built from "de-", a prefix meaning "remove" or "reverse," and "ethylated," the past participle of "ethylate," which means to introduce an ethyl group into a molecule. "Ethyl" itself comes from "ethe," the chemists' shortened name for ether, joined to the Greek suffix "-yl" (from "hyle," wood or matter), which chemists attached to names of molecular fragments. The ethyl group is the two-carbon unit CH3CH2, so the word describes a compound from which that unit has been taken away. The pattern is a standard one in organic chemistry. Adding a prefix to a verb formed from a group name produces terms for reversing a reaction, so a compound that has lost its ethyl group is "deethylated," much as a substance that has lost a methyl group is "demethylated." The prefix "de-" in such formations is a modern scientific convention, borrowed from Latin, and it is used freely in technical vocabulary rather than in everyday speech.

Synonyms: dealkylated, deethyl, ethanol removed

Antonyms: ethylated, alkylated