ammonia

Where does the word "ammonia" come from? It comes from Egyptian Amun, passing through Ancient Greek before entering English (1782).

Ammonia’s story begins in Egyptian: Amun meant “a principal Egyptian deity, 'the hidden one'.” Name of the ram-headed god whose desert oracle-temple gave salt deposits nearby his name. By ancient, the word had taken hold in Ancient Greek as Ammon. Greeks renamed the god Ammon and the salts mined near his Libyan temple after him; Pliny the Elder's Latin 'sal hammoniacus' carried the name into European chemistry. It reached English by 1782 as ammonia. Coined in scientific Latin by chemist Torbern Bergman for the pungent gas from sal ammoniac. Today, ammonia means a pungent, colorless alkaline gas (NH3) widely used in cleaning products, fertilizers, and industrial chemistry.

1. Stage 1 · Egyptian · ancient Amun "a principal Egyptian deity, 'the hidden one'", name of the ram-headed god whose desert oracle-temple gave salt deposits nearby his name.
2. Stage 2 · Ancient Greek · ancient Ammon "the god, and by extension the salt from his temple's sands", Greeks renamed the god Ammon and the salts mined near his Libyan temple after him; Pliny the Elder's Latin 'sal hammoniacus' carried the name into European chemistry.
3. Stage 3 · English · 1782 ammonia "a pungent alkaline gas, NH3", coined in scientific Latin by chemist Torbern Bergman for the pungent gas from sal ammoniac.