Thioamides

Part of speech: noun

Definitions

1. Compounds containing a thiocarbonyl group bonded to an amide nitrogen, used in chemistry and medicine for various applications including as antithyroid agents
2. Organic molecules featuring a sulfur atom double-bonded to a carbon which is also attached to an amino group, often utilized in pharmaceutical treatments to influence thyroid function
3. Chemical substances characterized by a thiocarbonyl linkage adjacent to a nitrogen atom, commonly employed in medicinal chemistry for inhibiting thyroid hormone synthesis

Etymology: Thioamides take their name from a chain of borrowings that runs back to ancient Egypt. The Greek word "theion" meant sulfur, and English borrowed the Greek root in the form "thio-" for compounds in which sulfur replaces oxygen. The other half of the name comes from "amide," which is built on "ammonia." That word traces to Ammon, the Egyptian god whose temples were associated with a salt-like substance, and to the Latin "ammoniacus," meaning of Ammon, which was applied to a resin and later to the gas itself. "Amide" follows the familiar pattern of chemists' coinages: "ammonia" plus the suffix "-ide," a suffix that the Proto-Italic and Latin "-idus" also lie behind and which chemists adopted to name compounds derived from another substance. A thioamide is therefore an amide in which sulfur has taken the place of oxygen, so the word simply records two ingredients: sulfur and ammonia.