Dimethylsilane

Part of speech: noun

Definitions

1. A chemical substance consisting of a silicon atom bonded to two methyl groups and one hydrogen atom
2. An organosilicon compound characterized by a silicon center connected to two methyl groups and a single hydrogen
3. A molecule formed with silicon bonded to two methyl groups and one hydrogen atom, used in various chemical applications

Etymology: Dimethylsilane is a compound built entirely from chemical building blocks, so its name works like a recipe. "Di-" is the Greek prefix meaning "two," "methyl" names the group CH3 (itself coined from Greek "methy," wine, plus "hyle," wood, because it was first obtained from wood spirit), and "silane" is the family name for silicon hydrides, formed on the pattern of "methane" with silicon in place of carbon. Put together, the name tells you the molecule has two methyl groups and the rest of its structure is a silicon-hydrogen core. The pattern is a deliberate system rather than an old word that drifted in meaning. Chemists in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries named hydrides of different elements by analogy with the hydrocarbons, so "silane" sits alongside "borane" and "phosphine" as members of one naming family. Adding "di-" and a substituent name to the stem follows the same logic used across organic and organometallic nomenclature, which is why a chemist can read the name and draw the structure without seeing a diagram.