Nitroglycerins

Part of speech: noun

Definitions

1. A class of chemical compounds containing nitrogen and glycerol which are used as explosives due to their high sensitivity and power
2. A form of glycerin that is highly explosive, commonly utilized in dynamite and other blasting materials
3. Organic compounds formed from glycerol that can serve both as medicine for heart conditions and as powerful explosives in various industrial applications

Etymology: Nitroglycerins is simply the plural of nitroglycerin, so the word's history is that of its singular form. The "nitro" part traces back to ancient Greek "nitron," a word for natron, the sodium-rich salt used in ancient Egypt, whose name itself reached Greek through Egyptian and Semitic sources. Chemists later took the element "nitro-" from that root to denote nitrogen-containing compounds, while "glycerin" comes from the sweet-tasting liquid glycerol, named from the Greek "glykys," meaning sweet. The compound was formed in English by joining these two parts: "nitro-" and "glycerin." It names a family of compounds made by treating glycerol with nitric and sulfuric acids. Because each member of the class is a separate compound, English uses the plural form "nitroglycerins" when referring to more than one, though in practice the singular is far more common.

Synonyms: glyceryl trinitrate, nitroglycerol