Halothane

Part of speech: noun

Definitions

1. A colorless, nonflammable volatile liquid used as an inhalational anesthetic agent during surgical procedures
2. A halogenated hydrocarbon administered by inhalation to induce and maintain anesthesia in operating rooms
3. A potent anesthetic compound vaporized and breathed by patients to produce unconsciousness for surgical intervention

Etymology: Halothane is a compound built from two existing words, "halogen" and "ethane," and its name tells you exactly what it is: an ethane molecule carrying halogen atoms. Halogens are the group of chemical elements that includes fluorine, chlorine, bromine and iodine, and the "halo" part of the name refers to their shared tendency to form salts, from Greek roots meaning "salt-producing." Ethane is a simple two-carbon hydrocarbon, so the blend joins a family name for a set of reactive elements with the name of the hydrocarbon they were attached to. The compound itself is a fluorinated, chlorinated, brominated ethane, and the chemical name describes which halogens were placed on which carbon atoms. Its name therefore works as a kind of recipe, which is typical of systematic chemical coinages: a reader who knows the component words can reconstruct the structure without ever having seen the molecule.

Synonyms: anesthetic, volatile anesthetic