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Nomenclature: Etymology

1) The word "alcohol" originated from the Arabic word "al-kuḥl" meaning a fine powder used as an eyeliner produced from antimony trisulfide. 2) In the 16th century, the term was extended to refer to any fluid obtained by distillation, including distilled wine called "alcohol of wine". 3) By the 18th century, the meaning became restricted to ethanol, and was later extended to include any organic compound containing a hydroxyl functional group in the 19th century.

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19 views

Nomenclature: Etymology

1) The word "alcohol" originated from the Arabic word "al-kuḥl" meaning a fine powder used as an eyeliner produced from antimony trisulfide. 2) In the 16th century, the term was extended to refer to any fluid obtained by distillation, including distilled wine called "alcohol of wine". 3) By the 18th century, the meaning became restricted to ethanol, and was later extended to include any organic compound containing a hydroxyl functional group in the 19th century.

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rjohn 7
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Nomenclature

Etymology
The word "alcohol" is from the Arabic kohl (Arabic: ‫الكحل‬, romanized: al-kuḥl), a powder used as an
eyeliner.[9] Al- is the Arabic definite article, equivalent to the in English. Alcohol was originally used for
the very fine powder produced by the sublimation of the natural mineral stibnite to form antimony
trisulfide Sb
2S

3. It was considered to be the essence or "spirit" of this mineral. It was used as an antiseptic,

eyeliner, and cosmetic. The meaning of alcohol was extended to distilled substances in general, and
then narrowed to ethanol, when "spirits" was a synonym for hard liquor.[10]
Bartholomew Traheron, in his 1543 translation of John of Vigo, introduces the word as a term used
by "barbarous" authors for "fine powder." Vigo wrote: "the barbarous auctours use alcohol, or (as I
fynde it sometymes wryten) alcofoll, for moost fine poudre." [11]
The 1657 Lexicon Chymicum, by William Johnson glosses the word as "antimonium sive
stibium."[12] By extension, the word came to refer to any fluid obtained by distillation, including
"alcohol of wine," the distilled essence of wine. Libavius in Alchymia (1594) refers to "vini alcohol vel
vinum alcalisatum". Johnson (1657) glosses alcohol vini as "quando omnis superfluitas vini a vino
separatur, ita ut accensum ardeat donec totum consumatur, nihilque fæcum aut phlegmatis in fundo
remaneat." The word's meaning became restricted to "spirit of wine" (the chemical known today
as ethanol) in the 18th century and was extended to the class of substances so-called as "alcohols"
in modern chemistry after 1850.[11]
The term ethanol was invented in 1892, combining the word ethane with the "-ol" ending of "alcohol".
[13]

Systematic names
IUPAC nomenclature is used in scientific publications and where precise identification of the
substance is important, especially in cases where the relative complexity of the molecule does not
make such a systematic name unwieldy. In naming simple alcohols, the name of the alkane chain
loses the terminal e and adds the suffix -ol, e.g., as in "ethanol" from the alkane chain name
"ethane".[14] When necessary, the position of the hydroxyl group is indicated by a number between
the alkane name and the -ol: propan-1-ol for CH
3CH

2CH

2OH, propan-2-ol for CH

3CH(OH)CH

3. If a higher priority group is present (such as an aldehyde, ketone, or carboxylic acid), then the

prefix hydroxy-is used,[14] e.g., as in 1-hydroxy-2-propanone (CH


3C(O)CH

2OH).
[15]

Some examples of simple alcohols and how to name them


CH3–CH2–CH2–
OH

isopropyl isobutyl alcohol, tert-amyl alcohol,


n-propyl alcohol,
alcohol, 2-methylpropan-1- 2-methylbutan-2-
propan-1-ol, or cyclohexanol
propan-2-ol, or ol, or ol, or
1-propanol
2-propanol 2-methyl-1-propanol 2-methyl-2-butanol

A primary A secondary A secondary


A primary alcohol A tertiary alcohol
alcohol alcohol alcohol

In cases where the OH functional group is bonded to an sp2 carbon on an aromatic ring the molecule
is known as a phenol, and is named using the IUPAC rules for naming phenols. [16]

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