Sulphamic

Part of speech: adjective

Definitions

1. Relating to or containing sulfamic acid, a strong inorganic acid made from sulfur, nitrogen and hydrogen used in cleaning and chemical synthesis
2. Describing a compound or substance derived from sulfamic acid, a crystalline acid used to descale metal and as a industrial chemical reagent
3. Of or pertaining to sulfamic acid, the colourless crystalline solid whose sulfur-nitrogen structure makes it useful for removing scale and rust

Etymology: "Sulphamic" is a chemical adjective, and its history is a plain piece of chemical naming rather than a story of shifting meaning. It is built from "sulphur" and "amino", with the adjective ending "-ic" added at the end. The first part names the element sulphur, from Latin "sulphur", and the second part names the amino group, a cluster of one nitrogen atom bonded to two hydrogen atoms, which chemists formed from ammonia. The two halves were joined to describe a specific compound: sulphamic acid, in which a sulphur atom bearing oxygen groups is linked to an amino group. The "-ic" ending is the same one found in many chemical adjectives, marking a substance that contains the named component in its acidic form. The spelling "sulfamic", with one "l", is the form now more common, while "sulphamic" keeps the older British-style spelling of sulphur.