English
gas
Gas comes from Ancient Greek χάος ‘chasm, void, empty space’.
- Ancient Greekc. 800–300 BCEχάοςkháos‘chasm’
- Dutchc. 1500–presentgas
- Englishearliest quotation 1899same form
attested reconstructed ? uncertain or disputed
Lineage
- Ancient Greekc. 800–300 BCEχάοςkháos‘chasm’
- Dutchc. 1500–presentgas
- Englishearliest quotation 1899same form
Earliest quotation: 1899, Stephen Crane: “[…] (it was the town's humour to be always…”
first attested First attested in 1648 (as stated in the etymology)
The story
Borrowed from Dutch gas, coined by chemist Jan Baptist van Helmont in Ortus Medicinae. Derived from Ancient Greek χάος (kháos, “chasm, void, empty space”); perhaps also inspired by geest (‘breath, vapour, spirit’). First attested in 1648.
Linked words
pairs
- gas and chaos both from Ancient Greek χάος ‘chasm’
through Proto-Indo-European *ǵʰeh₂- ‘to yawn, gape’
goal, gum, gap, gill, hiatus, gab, gape, 10 more
through Ancient Greek χάος ‘chasm, void, empty space’
Today it means
noun Matter in an intermediate state between liquid and plasma that can be contained only if it is fully surrounded by a solid (or in a bubble of liquid, or held together by gravitational pull); it can condense into a liquid, or can (rarely) become a solid directly by deposition.
Language periods are conventional ranges, not dates for this word.
Etymograph / Ancient Greek χάος / gas