oxygen
pronunciation
How to pronounce oxygen in British English:
UK [ˈɒksɪdʒən]
How to pronounce oxygen in American English:
US [ˈɑːksɪdʒən]
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- Noun:
- a nonmetallic bivalent element that is normally a colorless odorless tasteless nonflammable diatomic gas; constitutes 21 percent of the atmosphere by volume; the most abundant element in the earth's crust
Word Origin
- oxygen
- oxygen: [18] Etymologically, oxygen means ‘acid-former’. The word was coined in French in the late 1780s as oxygène, based on Greek oxús ‘sharp, acid’ (a descendant of the same Indo- European base, *ak- ‘be pointed’, as produced English acid, acute, etc) and the Greek suffixgenes, denoting ‘formation, creation’ (a descendant of the Indo-European base *gen- ‘produce’, which has given English a vast range of words, from gene to genocide).=> acid, acute, eager, gene, general, generate
- oxygen (n.)
- gaseous chemical element, 1790, from French oxygène, coined in 1777 by French chemist Antoine-Laurent Lavoisier (1743-1794), from Greek oxys "sharp, acid" (see acrid) + French -gène "something that produces" (from Greek -genes "formation, creation;" see -gen). Intended to mean "acidifying (principle)," it was a Greeking of French principe acidifiant. So called because oxygen was then considered essential in the formation of acids (it is now known not to be). The element was isolated by Priestley (1774), who, using the old model of chemistry, called it dephlogisticated air. The downfall of the phlogiston theory required a new name, which Lavoisier provided.
Example
- 1. This iron-rich protein helps carry oxygen to your body .
- 2. For blends and colors , use an oxygen bleach .
- 3. The only oddity was the oxygen tanks .
- 4. Manipur badly needs compromise as well as oxygen .
- 5. But are we without an oxygen mask ?