Desulphurate

Part of speech: verb

Definitions

1. To remove sulphur or sulphur compounds from a substance, especially from fuel or industrial materials
2. To strip away sulphur content from something through chemical or physical treatment
3. To eliminate sulphur or its compounds from a material or process

Etymology: "Desulphurate" is a plain technical formation: the prefix "de-", meaning "removing" or "reversing", attached to "sulphurate", which means to combine or treat with sulphur. Together they describe the act of removing sulphur from something, most often from fuels, crude oil or metals during refining. The "sulph-" spelling is the British form; American usage writes "desulfurate" for the same process. The word follows the usual pattern of chemical coinages built from existing English elements, so its meaning is transparent: each part contributes exactly what its sense suggests. Sulphur itself comes through Old French and Latin, but the verb is a modern technical construction rather than an inherited term.