Organotin

Part of speech: noun

Definitions

1. Any of a class of chemical compounds in which tin is bonded directly to carbon atoms, used in pesticides, stabilizers and catalysts
2. A group of tin-carbon compounds that include toxic substances used as biocides, plastic stabilizers and industrial catalysts
3. Chemical substances built around a tin atom linked to carbon, employed in agriculture, plastics manufacturing and wood preservation

Etymology: Organotin is a compound word built from "organo-" and "tin." The first part, "organo-," comes from Greek "organon," meaning "tool" or "instrument," and in chemistry it marks a compound containing carbon bonded directly to a metal or other element. The second part is the ordinary English word for the soft, silvery metal, which has been in use since Old English. Put together, the term names a family of tin compounds in which tin is bonded to carbon-containing groups, as opposed to inorganic tin salts and oxides. The "organo-" prefix is a modern scientific coinage rather than an ancient Greek term for chemical bonding. Chemists adopted the classical root to label carbon-based compounds of many elements, so the word reads as a precise technical description: a tin compound of the organic type. Its meaning therefore follows directly from the parts, with no surprising shift in sense along the way.