Methylamine

Part of speech: noun

Definitions

1. A colorless, flammable amine compound with a strong ammonia-like odor, used as an intermediate in making pharmaceuticals, pesticides and other chemicals
2. An organic base composed of a methyl group attached to an amino group, widely employed in the manufacture of various industrial and agricultural products
3. A simple primary amine with a pungent smell that is commonly used as a building block in chemical synthesis and in the production of drugs

Etymology: Methylamine is a plain technical coinage, built from two parts that chemists had already named. "Methyl" comes from "methylene," which in turn was formed from the Greek "methy," meaning wine, plus "hyle," meaning wood or matter. Chemists used "methyl" for the alcohol-derived radical, the carbon-and-hydrogen group found in wood spirit, and the name stuck as a general label for that group. "Amine" is the older half. It belongs to a family of compounds descended from ammonia, which is itself named after the Egyptian god Amun, whose temple at Siwa sold a salt that was the source of ammonia. Replacing hydrogen atoms in ammonia with carbon groups produces amines, so methylamine is simply the amine with one methyl group attached. Put together, the name describes the molecule's structure directly: a methyl group bonded to an amine. Nothing about the word is metaphorical, which is typical of systematic chemical names built from their components.

Synonyms: aminomethane