quantivalence

English edit

From Latin quantus (“how much”) + English -i- (interfix inserted between morphemes of Latin origin for ease of pronunciation) + Latin valentia (“bodily strength; health; vigour”) (ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *h₂welh₁- (“to rule; powerful, strong”)) + -ence (suffix meaning ‘having the condition or state of’), coined by F. O. Ward who communicated it to the German chemist August Wilhelm von Hofmann (1818–1892), leading him to coin the German word Quantivalenz^[1] from which valence is derived.

quantivalence (countable and uncountable, plural quantivalences)

(chemistry, historical) Synonym of valence (“the combining capacity of an atom, functional group, or radical determined by the number of atoms of hydrogen with which it will unite, or the number of electrons that it will gain, lose, or share when it combines with other atoms, etc.”)
(by extension, generally) Equivalence measured quantitatively.

synonym of valence — see valence

equivalence measured quantitatively

^ “quantivalence, n.”, in OED Online ⁠, Oxford, Oxfordshire: Oxford University Press, March 2022.