methyl

See also Methyl

English

Wikipedia

Etymology

From the German Methyl; compare the French méthyle.

French chemists Jean-Baptiste Dumas and Eugene Peligot, after determining methanol's chemical structure, introduced "methylene" from the Ancient Greek μέθυ (methy, “wine”) + ὕλη (hulē, “wood (patch of trees)”) with the intention of highlighting its origins, "alcohol made from wood (substance)", but with Greek language errors: the Greek for "wood (substance)" is xylo- (Ancient Greek ξύλον (ksulon, “wood”)). The term "methyl" was derived in about 1840 by back-formation from "methylene", and was then applied to describe "methyl alcohol".

Pronunciation

• (RP) enPR: mĕʹthĭl, IPA: /ˈmɛθɪl/, X-SAMPA: /"mETIl/

Noun

methyl (plural methyls)

1. (organic chemistry) The univalent hydrocarbon radical, CH₃, formally derived from methane by the loss of a hydrogen atom.

Derived terms

• dimethyl
• methyl alcohol
• methyl blue
• methylate

• methylotrophic
• tetramethyl
• trimethyl

Translations

univalent hydrocarbon radical, CH₃

• Catalan: metil (ca) m
• Czech: metyl (cs) m
• German: Methyl (de) n
• Greek: μεθύλιο (el) (methýlio) n
• Italian: metile (it), metilico (it) (attributive)

• Japanese: メチル (ja) (mechiru)
• Portuguese: metil (pt) m
• Romanian: metil (ro) m
• Russian: метил (ru) (metíl) m