Organoborane

Part of speech: noun

Definitions

1. A chemical compound in which carbon atoms are bonded directly to boron atoms, widely used as an intermediate in organic synthesis
2. An organic molecule featuring a direct bond between carbon and boron, often employed as a reagent for building larger carbon frameworks
3. A class of boron-containing organic compounds whose carbon-boron linkages make them valuable building blocks in chemical synthesis

Etymology: Organoboranes are compounds in which carbon atoms are bonded directly to boron, and the name is a plain piece of chemical construction: "organo-" marks a carbon-based (organic) group, and "borane" names the parent compound. Borane is itself built from "boro-", the combining form of boron, joined to "-ane", the suffix chemists use for saturated hydrogen compounds such as methane and ethane. So the word simply reads as "organic group attached to a borane." The boron half has a longer history. Boron came from "borax," a mineral salt that reached medieval Europe through Arabic "bawraq" and Medieval Latin "borax," with the Persian "bōraq" behind the Arabic form. Chemists named the element after it, and "boro-" followed. The "-ane" ending traces back through Latin "-ānus" to an old Proto-Italic suffix, which is why the same ending turns up in words as different as "urbane" and "methane."