Spectrochemical

Part of speech: adjective

Definitions

1. Relating to the study of the interaction between light spectra and chemical substances, often involving the analysis of spectral lines to determine chemical composition
2. Pertaining to the examination and interpretation of the effects of electromagnetic radiation on chemical compounds, especially through spectral methods to infer molecular and electronic structure
3. Concerning the chemical investigation that utilizes spectral data to understand the properties and behavior of substances under various forms of light exposure and their resulting electronic transitions

Etymology: Spectrochemical is a modern technical compound, built from "spectro-" and "chemical." The first part, "spectro-," is a combining form drawn from "spectrum," which the source traces back through Latin "spectrum" to the Latin "specere," meaning "to look at." The second part, "chemical," comes from New Latin "chemicus," itself rooted in "chemia," a term that reaches English from medieval Latin and ultimately from ancient Greek "khumeia," a word whose meaning the source places in the older tradition of alchemy. The "spectrum" element carries the sense of an image or appearance, the band of colours a prism spreads from white light. Chemists later borrowed that idea to describe the pattern of lines that each element emits or absorbs when heated or illuminated. Combining the two parts gives a word for work that reads a substance's identity from the light it gives off or takes in.