Phenetole

Part of speech: noun

Definitions

1. A colorless aromatic ether, chemically the ethyl phenyl ether, used as an intermediate in making dyes and medicines
2. An organic compound of the ether class with an ethyl group bonded to a phenyl ring, employed in chemical manufacturing
3. A volatile, sweet-smelling liquid ether that serves as a building block in the synthesis of dyes and drugs

Etymology: Phenetole is a chemist's coinage rather than an old word with a long story, and its name is built almost entirely from the building blocks of organic chemistry. It is the common name for ethyl phenyl ether, a colourless liquid with the formula C6H5OC2H5. The "phen-" part comes from "phenyl," the name given to the C6H5 benzene ring, which in turn traces to "phene," the 19th-century name for benzene, coined by Auguste Laurent. The "-ole" ending is a 19th-century chemical suffix borrowed from "alcohol" and related names, used here to signal an ethyl-oxygen compound of the phenol family. Because the name follows a pattern that chemists reached in the 1800s, its meaning can be read straight from its parts: a phenyl group joined to an ethoxy group through an oxygen atom. The word therefore records how organic chemistry learned to name compounds by their structure, rather than preserving any older everyday usage.

Synonyms: ethoxybenzene