dephlogisticated air

English

WOTD – 24 March 2023

Etymology

From dephlogisticated (“from which the phlogiston has been removed”) +‎ air, coined by the English chemist Joseph Priestley (1733–1804) in a 1775 article entitled “An Account of Further Discoveries in Air” published in the Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society: see the quotation.[1]

Pronunciation

(Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /diːflə(ʊ)ˌd͡ʒɪstɪkeɪtid ˈɛə/
(General American) IPA^(key): /difləˌd͡ʒɪstəˌkeɪtid ˈɛɚ/, /-floʊ-/
Rhymes: -ɛə(ɹ)
Hyphenation: de‧phlo‧gis‧ti‧cat‧ed air

Noun

dephlogisticated air (uncountable)

(chemistry, historical) Oxygen gas, as originally thought to be air deprived of phlogiston (“the hypothetical fiery principle formerly assumed to be a necessary constituent of combustible bodies and to be given up by them in burning”). [from 1775]
Synonym: dephlogisticated gas
- 1775 March 15 and May 25, Joseph Priestley, “XXXVIII. An Account of Further Discoveries in Air. […]”, in Philosophical Transactions, Giving Some Account of the Present Undertakings, Studies, and Labours, of the Ingenious, in Many Considerable Parts of the World, volume LXV, part I, London: […] W[illiam] Bowyer and J[ohn] Nichols; for Lockyer Davis, […], printer to the Royal Society, OCLC 630046584, pages 387 and 392:
  [page 387] As I think I have that ſufficiently proved, the fitneſs of air for reſpiration depends on its capacity to receive the phlogiſton exhaled from the lungs, this ſpecies may not improperly be called, dephlogiſticated air. […] [page 392] Upon the whole, I think, it may ſafely be concluded, that the pureſt air is that vvhich contains the leaſt phlogiſton: […] and that there is a regular gradation from dephlogiſticated air, through common air, and phlogiſticated air, down to nitrous air; […]
- 2002, Philip Ball, “Revolution: How Oxygen Changed the World”, in The Elements: A Very Short Introduction, Oxford, Oxfordshire: Oxford University Press, published 2004, →ISBN, page 30:
  [Joseph] Priestley never swayed from his firm conviction in the phlogiston theory as long as he lived, and he called his new gas ‘dephlogisticated air’.

Related terms

phlogisticated air

Translations

oxygen gas, as originally thought to be air deprived of phlogiston — See also translations at oxygen

Finnish: flogistoniton ilma

References

Compare “dephlogisticated air, n.” under “dephlogisticate, v.”, in OED Online ⁠, Oxford, Oxfordshire: Oxford University Press, September 2022.