Trichloroethylene

Part of speech: noun

Definitions

1. A colorless, volatile, toxic chemical solvent commonly used to degrease metal parts and once used as an inhalation anesthetic
2. A chlorinated hydrocarbon liquid employed as an industrial cleaning solvent for removing grease from metal and formerly as an anesthetic
3. A sweet-smelling, nonflammable volatile liquid compound used in metal degreasing and in certain older surgical anesthetics

Etymology: Trichloroethylene is a chemical coinage built from systematic naming rules rather than from a single inventor's story. Its parts are easy to read: "tri-" means three, "chloro-" refers to chlorine, and "ethylene" names the two-carbon compound from which the molecule is derived. Put together, the name describes a molecule of ethylene in which three hydrogen atoms have been replaced by chlorine atoms. The "ethylene" element itself is built in layers. "Ethyl" comes from "ethe," a shortened form of "ether" (ether), joined with the suffix "-yl," which chemists used to name a group of atoms that forms part of a larger molecule. Adding "-ene" marks a compound with a carbon-carbon double bond, which is what distinguishes ethylene from ethane. The word thus records, in order, the molecule's chlorine content, its carbon skeleton, and its bonding pattern.

Synonyms: TCE