Diester

Part of speech: noun

Definitions

1. A chemical compound formed by the esterification of two alcohols with one molecule of a dicarbon acid
2. Often used in organic synthesis and as intermediates in various chemical reactions
3. Characterized by having two ester functional groups within its molecular structure

Etymology: "Diester" is a plain chemical compound name built from two parts. The first, "di-", comes from Ancient Greek "dis" or "di-", meaning "two" or "twice," and passed into English through Latin. The second, "ester," is a chemistry coinage: in 1852 the German chemist Leopold Gmelin, who was working on the compounds formed when acids combine with alcohols, drew on German "Essig," meaning vinegar, and its older form "Essigäther" to name them. Gmelin's choice of name came from the way acetic acid, the sharp acid of vinegar, was among the earliest substances studied this way. A diester, then, is a molecule containing two ester groups. Chemists used "di-" as a standard prefix for counting such groups, following the same pattern as "diol" for a molecule with two alcohol groups. The term is therefore a systematic label rather than an old name carried over from earlier chemistry.

Synonyms: diester compound