Nomenclature of organic compounds - Trivial System

The meaning of Nomenclature is assignment of names to organic compounds. There are two major systems of nomenclature of organic compounds.

(1) Trivial system: Trivial system is the oldest system of naming organic compounds. The trivial name was usually based on the source, a few property or some other reason. Quite often, the names selected had Greek or Latin roots. As illustrated,

(i) Acetic acid obtain its name from vinegar of which it is the main constituent (Latin : acetum = vinegar).

(ii) Formic acid was termed as it was acquired from red ants. The Greek word for the red ants is formicus.

(iii) The names oxalic acid or oxalus, malic acid or pyrus malus, citric acid or citrus have been derived from botanical sources specified in parentheses.

(iv) Urea and uric acid contain their names from urine where both are present.

(v) The liquid acquired by the destructive distillation of wood was termed as wood spirit. After that it was named methyl alcohol (Greek : methu = spirit; hule = wood).

(vi) Names such as glucose (sweet), pentane (five), hexane (six), etc. were derived from Greek words explaining their properties or structures.

(vii) Methane was termed as marsh gas because it was produced in marshes. It was as well named as fire damp since it formed explosive mixture with air.