Toluidine

Part of speech: noun

Definitions

1. Any of several aromatic amine compounds with the formula CH3C6H4NH2, used chiefly as intermediates in making dyes and pharmaceuticals
2. A toxic organic base derived from toluene, existing in three isomeric forms and employed in the synthesis of colorants and other chemicals
3. An aromatic amine related to aniline, produced from toluene and used as a building block in the manufacture of dyes and drugs

Etymology: Toluidine is named after a balsam, and a town in Colombia. In 1843, the Swedish chemist Jöns Jacob Berzelius proposed the term "toluid" for the toluyl radical, a chemical group. The name drew on "tolu," the resin known as Tolu balsam, which takes its name from the Colombian city of Tolú. That city's name in turn comes from Spanish "tolúes," the name of a pre-Columbian people of the area. The chain of names continued in 1845, when James Sheridan Muspratt and August Wilhelm von Hofmann discovered the compound and coined the word. They started from "nitrotoluide," an obsolete term for nitrotoluene, which they reduced to produce this new substance. Appending the chemical suffix "-ine," used for nitrogen-containing bases such as aniline, gave the final name.