Editing Alkyl group (section)

==Etymology==
The first named alkyl radical was ethyl, named so by [[Liebig]] in 1833 from the German word "Äther" (which in turn had been derived from the Greek word "[[Aether (classical element)|aither]]" meaning "air", for the substance now known as [[diethyl ether]]) and the Greek word ύλη ([[hyle]]), meaning "matter".<ref>{{cite book|title=From the Molecular World: A Nineteenth-Century Science Fantasy|first=Alan|last=Rocke|publisher=Springer|date=2012|isbn=978-3-642-27415-2|page=62|quote=Ethyl radicals (named by Liebig in 1833 from the Greek and German word "aether" plus Greek "hyle"}}</ref> This was followed by methyl ([[Jean-Baptiste Dumas|Dumas]] and [[Eugène-Melchior Péligot|Peligot]] in 1834, meaning "spirit of wood"<ref>{{cite book|title=From the Molecular World: A Nineteenth-Century Science Fantasy|first=Alan|last=Rocke|publisher=Springer|date=2012|isbn=978-3-642-27415-2|page=62|quote=The methyl radical ... named from Greek roots, by Dumas and Peligot in 1834: methyl = methy + hyle ("spirit" + "wood")}}</ref>) and amyl ([[Auguste André Thomas Cahours|Auguste Cahours]] in 1840<ref>{{cite book|title=From the Molecular World: A Nineteenth-Century Science Fantasy|first=Alan|last=Rocke|publisher=Springer|date=2012|isbn=978-3-642-27415-2|page=62|quote=Amyl radicals ("amilène" was coined by Auguste Cahours in 1840, to designate a substance from potato starch after fermentation and distillation}}</ref>). The word alkyl was introduced by [[Johannes Wislicenus]] in or before 1882, based on the German word "Alkoholradikale" and then-common suffix -yl.<ref>{{cite book|title=From the Molecular World: A Nineteenth-Century Science Fantasy|first=Alan|last=Rocke|publisher=Springer|date=2012|isbn=978-3-642-27415-2|page=62|quote="Alkyl" was coined without fanfare by Johannes Wislicenus, professor at Würzburg; an early use (perhaps not the first) is in his 1882 article [22, 244]. The word was derived from the first three letters of "Alkoholradicale" combined with the suffix -yl; it was (and is) a generic term for any of those radicals who bear the "first names" methyl, ethyl, propyl, butyl, amyl, etc.}}</ref><ref>{{cite journal|title=Ueber die Schätzung von Haftenenergien der Halogene und des Natriums an organischen Resten|journal=Ann. Chem.|volume=212|pages=239–250|first=Johannes|last=Wisclicenus|date=1882|doi=10.1002/jlac.18822120107}}</ref>