2009/10/01 by Gregory S. Girolami · 1 citation
Medicine · Agricultural and Biological Sciences · Health Professions · #Cancer Treatment and Pharmacology #Lichen and fungal ecology #Medical Research and Practices #Pnictogen #Etymology #Allusion #Root (linguistics) #German #Philosophy #Literature #Linguistics #Art #Physics #Condensed matter physics
paper · doi:10.1021/ed086p1200
openalex publication_date 2009/10/01 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/30
The origin and etymology of the terms pnictogen (also spelled pnigogen or pnicogen ) and pnictide are traced to a suggestion of Dutch chemist Anton Eduard van Arkel (1893–1976) in the early 1950s. The words are derived from the Greek root pnikta, “suffocated things”, in allusion to the German name for nitrogen, Stickstoff, or “suffocating substance”. The terms thus mean, loosely, “suffocator maker”.