An Etymological Dictionary of Astronomy and Astrophysics
English-French-Persian

A compound of → oxygen and another → chemical element.

From Fr. oxyde, from oxygène, → oxygen and acide, → acid.

Capable of undergoing a → chemical→ reaction with → oxygen.

→ oxidize + → -able.

To convert a → chemical element into an → oxide; combine with → oxygen.

→ oxide + → -ize.

Combined with or having undergone a chemical → reaction with → oxygen.

Past participle of → oxidize.

A substance that → oxidizes another substance. Same as → oxidant and → oxidizing agent.

Agent noun from → oxidize.

A substance that brings about an → oxidation. Same as → oxidant and → oxidizer.

→ oxide; → -ize; → -ing; → agent.

A gaseous → chemical element; symbol O. Oxygen is the most abundant element in the → Universe not produced in the → Big Bang, and the third most common overall. It is a colorless, tasteless, odorless gas that is the second most abundant constituent of dry air (20.95% by volume). → Atomic number 8; → atomic weight 15.9994; → melting point -218.4°C; → boiling point -182.962°C; → density 1.429 grams per liter at STP. Oxygen was discovered for the first time by a Swedish Chemist, Carl Wilhelm Scheele, in 1772. Joseph Priestley, an English chemist, independently, discovered oxygen in 1774 and published his findings the same year, three years before Scheele published. Antoine Lavoisier, a French chemist, also discovered oxygen in 1775, was the first to recognize it as an element.

From Fr. oxygène, literally "acid former," coined in 1777 by the Fr. chemist Antoine-Laurent Lavoisier (1743-1794), from Gk. oxys "sharp, acid" + Fr. -gène "something that produces" from Gk. -genes "formation, creation" (cognate with Pers. zâdan "to bring forth, give birth;" Mid.Pers. zâtan; Av. zan- "to bear, give birth to a child, be born," infinitive zazāite, zāta- "born;" cf. Skt. janati "begets, bears;" L. gignere "to beget," nasci "to be born," as above, PIE base *gen- "to give birth, beget").

Oksižen, loan from Fr., as above.

The stage when a star fuses → oxygen into → silicon and → sulfur. It occurs only in → massive stars, with a mass over eight → solar masses.

→ oxygen; → burning.

A form of oxygen, O₃, in which the molecule is made of three atoms instead of the usual two.

From Ger. Ozon, coined in 1840 by Ger. chemist Christian Friedrich Schönbein (1799-1868) from Gk. ozon, neute pr.p. of ozein "to smell." So called for its peculiar odor.

Not really a "hole," but a region of exceptionally depleted ozone in the stratosphere over the Antarctic that happens at the beginning of Southern Hemisphere spring (August-October). It was first noticed in the 1970s by a research group from the British Antarctic Survey.

→ ozone; → hole.

An atmospheric layer that contains a high proportion of oxygen that exists as ozone. It acts as a filtering mechanism against incoming ultraviolet radiation. It is located between the troposphere and the stratosphere, around 15 to 20 kilometers above the Earth's surface.

→ ozone; → layer.

The ozone layer within the stratosphere that filters out potentially lethal intensities of ultraviolet radiation from the Sun.

→ ozone; shield, from O.E. scield, scild, related to sciell "seashell, eggshell," from P.Gmc. *skeldus (cf. Du. schild, Ger. Schild, Goth. skildus); PIE base *(s)kel- "to cut."

Separ "shield," from Mid.Pers. spar "shield;" cf. Skt. phalaka- "board, lath, leaf, shield," phálati "(he) splits;" Gk. aspalon "skin, hide," spolas "flayed skin," sphalassein "to cleave, to disrupt;" O.H.G. spaltan "to split;" Goth. spilda "board;" PIE base *(s)p(h)el- "to split, to break off;" → ozone.