Perfluorooctane

Part of speech: noun

Definitions

1. A chemical compound made of eight carbon atoms with every hydrogen replaced by fluorine, used as a solvent and in industrial processes
2. An organic substance in which all hydrogen atoms on an eight-carbon chain have been swapped for fluorine atoms, making it extremely stable
3. A fluorocarbon built on an eight-carbon backbone, notable for its chemical inertness and its persistence in the environment

Etymology: Its first part, "fluor-", is a trace of an old mining term. Fluorine is named after fluorite, or fluorspar, a mineral that miners and smelters used as a flux because it helped metals flow when melted. That mineral name comes from Latin "fluor," meaning "flow," from "fluere," "to flow." The rest is systematic chemical naming. "Octane" comes from Greek "okto," eight, because the molecule has eight carbon atoms, and "-ane" is the standard ending for saturated hydrocarbons, borrowed from the pattern of "methane." The prefix "per-" signals that every hydrogen atom on that carbon skeleton has been replaced by fluorine, so the name describes the molecule's structure piece by piece.