Science & TechnologyGreek → English
Halide
/ˈhælaɪd/noun
A compound of a halogen with another element, such as sodium chloride or silver bromide.
The Greek roots
ἅλς
háls
salt, the sea
Literally: “salt-stuff”
Follow a root:ἅλς4 words
The story of the word
The group name halogen, salt-former, was proposed in 1811 for chlorine and later stretched over the whole column of the periodic table; halide is what you get when one of them has done the forming. ἅλς meant both salt and the sea, a single word for two things that taste the same. Photography ran on silver halides for a century and a half, which is why darkroom chemistry and rock salt share an ancestor.
- How it travelled
- Ancient Greek → scientific coinage → English
- First recorded
- 19th century
Same family
halogenhalitehalophytehalieutic
In a sentence
Film works because a silver halide crystal darkens where light has struck it.