Silacycloalkane

Part of speech: noun

Definitions

1. A ring-shaped molecule where one or more carbon atoms in a hydrocarbon ring are replaced by silicon atoms
2. A cyclic chemical structure similar to cycloalkanes but containing silicon atoms instead of some carbons
3. An organic ring compound with silicon atoms incorporated into the ring framework in place of carbon

Etymology: Silacycloalkane is a chemistry coinage built from familiar pieces, and its parts were assembled deliberately rather than inherited from ordinary speech. "Silicon" comes from the Latin "silex" (flint), a name given by chemists in the early nineteenth century, when Humphry Davy and others were trying to identify the element in silica. The "sila-" prefix marks a silicon atom in place of carbon in a molecule. "Cycloalkane" is itself a compound: "cyclo-" from Greek "kyklos" (circle), joined to "alkane," a name for saturated hydrocarbons, which was formed in the nineteenth century by shortening "alkyl" and adding the "-ane" ending used for hydrocarbons. Put together, the word describes a saturated ring of carbon atoms in which one or more carbons have been swapped for silicon. Chemists needed a systematic name that told the structure at a glance, so the term follows the same logic as the naming systems used for organic compounds generally. The word is a technical coinage with no older history in everyday English, and its meaning rests entirely on the chemical structure it names.

Synonyms: silicon cycloalkane