Advertisement

Origin and history of -ide

-ide

word-forming element used in chemistry to coin names for simple compounds of one element with another element or radical; originally abstracted from oxide, which was the first so classified, in which the -ide is from acide "acid."

The suffix is really -dus ( -do-), the -i- repr. the orig. or supplied stem-vowel ; it occurs without the vowel in absurdus, absurd, blandus, bland, crudus, raw (crude), etc. [Century Dictionary]

Entries linking to -ide

"compound of oxygen with another element," 1790, from French oxide (1787), coined by French chemists Louis-Bernard Guyton de Morveau and Antoine Lavoisier from ox(ygène) (see oxygen) + (ac)ide "acid" (see acid (n.)).

compound of bromine and another metal or radical, 1836, from bromine, the pungent, poisonous element, + -ide. Used medicinally as a sedative; figurative sense of "dull, conventional person or trite saying" popularized by U.S. humorist Frank Gelett Burgess in his book "Are You a Bromide?" (1906). Related: Bromidic.

Advertisement

More to explore

Share -ide

Advertisement
Trending
Advertisement