Sulphonamide

Part of speech: noun

Definitions

1. A class of compounds containing a sulfonamide group that exhibit antibacterial properties and are used in the treatment of various infections
2. Compounds characterized by the presence of a sulfonamide functional group, often utilized as antibiotics in pharmaceuticals
3. Chemical substances that include a sulfonamide moiety and are primarily known for their effectiveness against bacterial infections

Etymology: Sulphonamide is a chemical name built from two older words, and the first of them has an ancient ancestry. "Sulfonic acid" is the base, and "amide" is a chemical suffix that goes back, through a long chain, to the Egyptian god Amun. The Greeks called him Ammon, and Roman writers linked his oracle in the Libyan desert to a salt-rich substance they called "sal ammoniacus," or ammonia. Chemists later used that root to name ammonia and its derivatives, including the "-ide" ending of "amide." The sulfon- part comes from sulfonic acid, a compound containing sulfur, which is why the spelling begins with "sulf-" in modern usage. Sulphonamide joins these two chemical building blocks into a single name for a family of compounds. The spelling "sulphonamide" with a "ph" is the older British form, and "sulfonamide" is the American and now more common spelling.

Synonyms: sulfa drug, sulfonamide