Oxygenic

Part of speech: adjective

Definitions

1. Involving biological processes that lead to the production of oxygen, especially through photosynthesis in various organisms
2. Relating to processes that generate oxygen, particularly from photosynthetic activity in plants and certain bacteria
3. Characterized by the production of oxygen as a byproduct, primarily during photosynthetic mechanisms in living organisms

Etymology: Oxygen was named in the 1777 era by Antoine Lavoisier's circle in France, and "oxygenic" is simply the adjective built from it: "oxygen" plus the English suffix "-ic." The first half of the name goes back to Ancient Greek "oxús," meaning sharp or acid, and the second half, "-gen," comes from "génos," meaning birth or origin, so oxygen was imagined as the "acid-former," a substance thought to be the source of acidity in compounds. That idea was wrong, and the meaning of the root has stayed behind in the name. Oxygen does not make things acidic in general, but the chemists who coined it had built their theory around it, and the French name "oxygène" was carried into English as "oxygen." The word "oxygenic" is a plain technical formation, and the suffix "-ic" itself passed into English through Latin "-icus," then Old French "-ique," then Middle English "-ik."

Synonyms: aerobic, oxygen-producing, oxygen-rich, breathable, combustive

Antonyms: anaerobic, non-oxygen, suffocative, toxic, poisonous