oxygen Chem.
(ˈɒksɪdʒən)
Also 8– oxi-, -gene.
[a. F. oxygène, intended to mean ‘acidifying (principle)’, principe acidifiant (Lavoisier): see oxy- and -gen 1; oxygen being at first held to be the essential principle in the formation of acids.
Lavoisier's original term, proposed in 1777, was principe oxygine, changed 1785–6 to principe oxygène; thence in 1786 oxygène as n., spelt in Nomenclature of 1787 oxigène; admitted in Dict. Acad. 1835 as oxygène.]
1. a. One of the non-metallic elements, a colourless invisible gas, without taste or smell. Symbol O: atomic weight 16. Also fig.
It is the most abundant of all the elements, existing, in the free state (mixed with nitrogen), in atmospheric air, and, in combination, in water and most minerals and organic substances. It combines with nearly all other elements (forming oxides), the process of combination being in some cases so energetic as to produce sensible light and heat (combustion), in others very gradual, as in the rusting or oxidation of metals. It is essential, in the free state, to the life of all animals and plants, and is absorbed into the organism in respiration: hence it was formerly called vital air. Priestley, who isolated it in 1774, holding it to be common air deprived of phlogiston (q.v.), called it dephlogisticated air.
| [1789 J. K[eir] 1st Pt. Dict. Chem. Pref. 18 Lavoisier..having endeavoured to show that vegetable and other matters..consist of air, charcoal, and inflammable gas, or, in his language, oxygene, carbone, and hydrogene.] 1790 R. Kerr tr. Lavoisier's Elem. Chem. ii. iv. 185 Oxygen forms almost a third of the mass of our atmosphere. [1791 Beddoes in Phil. Trans. LXXXI. 176 Cast iron..contains a portion of the basis of vital air, the oxygène of M. Lavoisier.] 1791 Hamilton Berthollet's Dyeing I. i. i. i. 3 Mercury, combined with a small quantity of oxygen is black. 1794 Europ. Mag. XXVI. 5 Dephlogisticated Air, or (as they are now pleased to call it) Oxygene. 1799 Med. Jrnl. I. 373 Opponents particularly object, that the base of vital air does not deserve the title of oxygen, as many combinations of it are far from being acids. 1811 Davy in Nicholson's Jrnl. XXIX. 112 Combinations of Oximuriatic Gas and Oxigen. 1845 W. Gregory Outlines Chem. 45 Oxygen was discovered by Priestley in 1774; and in the following year by the Swedish chemist Scheele without any knowledge of Priestley's discovery. 1872 Huxley Phys. i. 17 It is oxygen which is the great sweeper of the economy. |
| fig. 1849 Lytton Caxtons I. ii. i. 45 Having thus exhausted all the oxygen of learning in that little receiver [sc. a preparatory school], my parents looked out for a wider range for my inspirations. 1932 Sunday Times 15 May 6 That cheerful noise which is the oxygen of ‘society’. |
b. An atom of oxygen.
| 1950 F. H. Hatch et al. Petrol. Igneous Rocks (ed. 10) i. ii. 68 The essential hydroxyl groups are included in the planes containing the ‘free’ oxygens in the tetrahedra. 1966 Mineral. Mag. XXXV. 1071 These compounds contain oxygens associated with three nearly equidistant protons forming H3O+ ions. 1974 Nature 4 Jan. 15/1 The main chain carbonyl oxygens were not resolved from the rest of the main chain, so that the orientation of the peptide bonds could not be determined directly. |
2. A manufacturer's name for bleaching-powder,
i.e. so-called ‘chloride of lime’. (Simmonds 1858.)
3. attrib. and
Comb. a. attrib. or adj. (see etymology above), in
† oxygene air (
obs.),
oxygen gas, names for oxygen in the free or gaseous state.
| 1790 R. Kerr tr. Lavoisier's Elem. Chem. i. v. 54 The oxygen gas, or pure vital air. 1794 G. Adams Nat. & Exp. Philos. I. xi. 449 Vital, Dephlogisticated, or oxygene air. 1794 Pearson in Phil. Trans. LXXXIV. 388 White lac burned in oxygen gaz without..any smoke, and with a beautifully bright flame. 1843 J. A. Smith Product. Farming (ed. 2) 19 Oxygen, in union with latent heat, forms Oxygen gas. 1896 Daily News 31 Oct. 5/3 The oxygen treatment is the application of oxygen gas to wounds and ulcers. |
b. The
n. in
attrib. use or in combination; as in
oxygen acid (
= oxyacid 1),
oxygen-carrier,
oxygen inhalation,
oxygen lack,
oxygen saturation,
oxygen supply,
oxygen tension,
oxygen treatment;
oxygen-breeding,
oxygen-carrying,
oxygen-dependent,
oxygen-free,
oxygen-poor adjs. oxygen bottle, a cylinder of compressed or liquid oxygen;
oxygen debt (see
quot. 1923);
oxygen lance (see
lance n.1 8);
oxygen mask, a mask fitting over the nose and mouth through which oxygen or oxygen-enriched air may be supplied for breathing;
oxygen tent, a tent-like enclosure for placing over a patient in order to provide him with an oxygen-enriched atmosphere.
| 1878 Abney Photogr. (1881) 64 Any other oxygen absorbing medium. |
| 1842 Parnell Chem. Anal. (1845) 89 The combinations of oxide of gold with oxygen acids are almost unknown. |
| 1932 Illustrierte Technische Wörterbücher XVII. 234/1 Sauerstoffbombe (f.)—oxygen bottle—bombe (f) à oxygène—bombola (f) d'ossigeno. 1941 Flight 16 Jan. 48/1 The rigger changes the oxygen bottles and fits the starting motor to the aircraft. 1974 Hawkey & Bingham Wild Card xix. 156 The other [trolley], an anesthesia machine, carried three yoked oxygen bottles. |
| 1888 Jrnl. R. Microsc. Soc. 596 Schunck..regards chlorophyll as a respiratory pigment, but probably a carbonic acid-carrier, not an oxygen-carrier. 1897 Allbutt's Syst. Med. IV. 643 [The blood-corpuscles] cannot perform such an active part as oxygen-carriers. 1972 Cytobiologie V. 52 This was the first application of the perfusion medium with a fluorocarbon as oxygen carrier. |
| 1916 A. P. Mathews Physiol. Chem. xi. 496 There may be in addition a union with the hemoglobin, which will retard its oxygen-carrying capacity. 1968 Times 13 Nov. 16/1 The beads may be minute clumps of haemoglobin, the oxygen-carrying protein. |
| 1923 Hill & Lupton in Q. Jrnl. Med. XVI. 142 The ‘oxygen debt’ is defined as the total amount of oxygen used, after cessation of exercise, in recovery therefrom. 1947 T. K. Cureton et al. Physical Fitness Appraisal xiv. 437 The lactic acid [in the blood] increases very rapidly, with an estimated increment of 7 grams for each liter of oxygen debt. 1969 J. H. Green Basic Clin. Physiol. xi. 66/1 It is possible to run a short distance (100 yards) without breathing... After the exercise has been completed the subject breathes deeply and rapidly for the next few minutes in order to take in oxygen to ‘repay’ the oxygen debt. |
| 1956 Nature 17 Mar. 531/1 Oxygen-dependent reactions. 1972 Jrnl. Exper. Marine Biol. & Ecol. IX. 217 The respiratory rate of the oxygen-dependent prosobranch, Buccinum undatum L., increases with decreasing salinity. |
| 1933 Mining & Metallurgy XIV. 340/1 Oxygen-free high-conductivity copper..that is now being commercially offered for the first time represents a notable achievement in electro-metallurgy. 1972 Radiation Res. XLIX. 507 The oxygen-carrying capacity of Busycon and Limulus hemocyanins is eliminated following irradiation of the protein with cobalt-60 γ-rays in neutral, oxygen-free media. |
| 1897 Daily News 12 July 5/3 The work of the Oxygen Home, opened by Princess Louise last May, appears to be progressing very satisfactorily. |
| 1898 Allbutt's Syst. Med. V. 46 For this [shortness of breath] there is a remedy in oxygen inhalations. |
| 1925 Physiol. Rev. V. 554 Carbon dioxide and oxygen lack produced marked increases in respiration with very little change in the reaction of the blood. 1963 R. P. Dales Annelids iv. 93 Among oligochaetes the abilities of Tubifex to withstand oxygen-lack are well known. |
| 1874 tr. Lommel's Light 5 Termed the oxygen lamp or burner. |
| 1920 Abstr. Papers in Sci. Trans. & Periodicals July 177 A description is given of the oxygen mask used by the French military aviators. 1930 E. Rice Voy. to Purilia i. 16 The air grew rarer... We were obliged to don the oxygen masks..so carefully and laboriously constructed for us. 1964 L. S. Brunner et al. Text-bk. Medical-Surgical Nursing xii. 189/1 Those individuals whose need for supplemental oxygen is greatest..are the very ones who are most prone to resist the application of an oxygen mask. 1975 Times 4 Sept. 1/8, I saw an air hostess run into the first-class compartment with an oxygen mask. |
| 1951 M. Abercrombie et al. Dict. Biol. 128 Lung... Present in early fishes before origin of Amphibia, probably as an accessory breathing organ adapted to oxygen-poor fresh waters in which earliest vertebrates probably lived. 1969 Listener 6 Feb. 163/1 Mars has an atmosphere which is appreciable, even though it is too thin and too oxygen-poor to support any Earth creatures. |
| 1942 Electronic Engin. XIV. 724 The ratio of their output currents will remain constant for any given degree of oxygen saturation. 1969 Crofton & Douglas Respiratory Dis. i. 33/1 The oxygen saturation is relatively uninfluenced until the partial pressure of oxygen in alveolar gas falls to relatively low levels. |
| 1916 A. P. Mathews Physiol. Chem. xi. 481 The arterial blood had an oxygen tension varying in different experiments from 91·6–104·4 per cent of the tension in the alveolar air. 1953 J. Hunt Ascent of Everest 273 The respiratory centre in the brain..responds normally not to the oxygen tension of the blood..but to the direct effect of carbon dioxide tension of the arterial blood. 1965 B. E. Freeman tr. Vandel's Biospeleol. xviii. 318 The oxygen tension of subterranean waters is variable. |
| [1921 Jrnl. Physiol. LV. p. xx (heading) A simple oxygen bed tent and its use to [sic] a case of œdema and chronic ulcer of the leg.] 1925 Sci. Amer. Sept. 181/2 (caption) A portable oxygen tent for pneumonia patients. 1974 C. Hill Scorpion 55 Michael was lying under an oxygen tent..the top of his head covered in bandages. |
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Add:
[3.] [b.] oxygen fugacity, the fugacity of oxygen in a particular mineral or rock.
| 1959 Amer. Jrnl. Sci. CCLVII. 612 At low total pressures pO2 represents closely the true escaping tendency (fugacity) of oxygen in the system... The pO2 prevailing at the limiting total pressure above which the gas phase disappeared is a rough measure of the *oxygen fugacity of the system. 1978 Sci. Amer. Aug. 104/2 Dryness, low content of volatile elements and low oxygen fugacity are the three hallmarks of lunar-rock composition. 1987 Zeitschr. für Anorganische und Allgemeine Chem. DL. 96 The variation of oxygen fugacity with composition of the zinc ferrite-magnetite solutions that coexist with ZnO (s) is independent of temperature. |