426 
OXIDE V. OXYDE ; CHEMIST V. CHYMIST. 
And in the new American edition of Webster’s Dictionary the following ap¬ 
pears Oxide. [Fr. oxide , oxyde. The -French word was correctly spelt with 
i instead of y in the second syllable till about the year 1840, when, in ignorance 
or forgetfulness of the true history and composition of the term, the orthography 
was changed to make it. represent the v of the Greek word o£u?, from which it 
was supposed to be directly derived.] This word has been variously written 
oxide, oxyd, oxyde, and oxid. It was introduced into the present, system of 
chemical nomenclature by Guyton de Morveau in 1787, and was by him and 
his associates of the French Academy spelled oxide , the first syllable of hr. oxi- 
qene or oxyghie, being prefixed to the last syllable of acide , to denote a substance, 
no t acid , formed by the combination of some simple body with oxygen , it not 
being at that time known that any of the oxides possess acid properties. The 
same termination, as indicative of combination, is added to the first, syl able or 
syllables of the names of other elements. Thus, from chlorine , sulphur , phos¬ 
phorus, iodine , carbon, bromine , and nitrogen , we have respectively chloride , 
sulphide , phosphide , iodide , carbide , bromide, and nitride. These words, and 
others formed on the same analogy, are often spelled without the final e, and 
some writers have therefore omitted the e from oxide also;, but this form of the 
word (oxid) is very unusual. From au oversight of the history and true compo¬ 
sition of the term, many have been led to write a y instead of i in the last syl¬ 
lable, oxyd or oxyde , as if the y were necessary to represent the v of the Greek 
6C-{js- whereas in the original formation of this word, no immediate reference 
was had to the Greek, as has already been shown. Besides, it may be observed 
that the Greek itself has other words, such as o|o?, o^iiXeios, d^aXis, o&va, etc., 
formed from the same root as d£uv, but without the v of that adjective, or in 
which the v is changed into some other vowel. The orthography oxide or oxid 
is, therefore, both historically and etymologically to be preferred ; and not only 
so, but it is better supported by usage than oxyd or oxyde , being the form ot 
spelling adopted by the great majority of chemists and scientific writers both in 
England and America.” , ^, . , , ^ . 
I have referred to De Morveau’s ‘ Memoire sur le Developpement des Brm- 
cipes de la Nomenclature Methodique,’ * and have there found, at page 56, the 
following corroboration of what I have just quoted from Webster’s Dictionary: 
_“ Nous avons done du cliercher une expression nouvelle, et pour la rendre 
consequents a nos principes, nous avons forme le mot oxide, qui d’une part 
rappelle la substance avec laquelle le metal est uni, qui d’autre part annonce suf- 
fisamment que cette combinaison de 1’oxigene ne doit pas etre confondue avec 
la combinaison acide, quoiqu’elle sen rapproche a plusieurs egards. ’ It will be 
observed that in the above extract we have oxigene ; indeed the want of .uni¬ 
formity in the orthography employed by the scientific men who were associated 
in the construction of the new system of nomenclature is somewhat remarkable. 
Lavoisier, de Morveau, and de Fourcroy, are all agreed as to the spelling oxide; 
but while the first-named chemist spells. oxygene, with a ?/, the others spell it with 
an i. althouoh in the memoir referred to, the origin of the word is thus given 
u nous avons satisfait a ces conditions «en adoptant 1 expression, d oxigene,^ en 
la tirant, comme M. Lavoisier l’a des longtemps propose, du Grec 6£bs, acide, 
et yeivouai , j’engendre.” Again, de Morveau differs from his colleagues in 
writing hidrogene. I should therefore not have been surprised to find the or¬ 
thography oxide accompanied by a statement that the term was formed directly 
from the Greek dijvs. Such, however, is not the case. # 
Having, I think, written enough to show that we are not justified in con¬ 
demning the orthography oxide, I pass to the consideration of the other terms 
* ‘ Methode de Nomenclature Chimique proposee par MM.de Morveau, Lavoisier, Ber- 
dliolet, et de Fourcroy.’ Paris, 1787. 
