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.

Pronunciation

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /diːflə(ʊ)ˌd͡ʒɪstɪkeɪtid ˈɛə/
• (General American) IPA^(key): /difləˌd͡ʒɪstəˌkeɪtid ˈɛɚ/, /-floʊ-/

• Audio (General American):

  (file)

• Rhymes: -ɛə(ɹ)
• Hyphenation: de‧phlo‧gis‧ti‧cat‧ed air

Noun

dephlogisticated air (uncountable)

1. (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, 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; […]

   • 1896, William Ramsay, “The Discovery of ‘Dephlogisticated Air’ by Priestley and by Scheele—the Overthrow of the Phlogistic Theory by Lavoisier”, in The Gases of the Atmosphere: The History of Their Discovery, London: Macmillan and Co.; New York, N.Y.: The Macmillan Co., →OCLC, page 78:

     [Joseph] Priestley's experiments were performed at intervals from August 1774 till March 1775, and at that date it occurred to him to mix with his dephlogisticated air some nitric oxide over water; absorption took place, and he concluded that he might assume his new air to be respirable.

   • 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 oxygen

• Finnish: flogistoniton ilma

Further reading

• oxygen on Wikipedia.Wikipedia
• phlogiston theory on Wikipedia.Wikipedia