The story
From aero- + gel. First attested in the early 1920s as a coinage credited to British-Irish chemist Frederick G. Donnan, originally in reference to coagulated aerosols.
Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.
aerogel
Today it means: A porous, ultralight solid-state substance, similar to gel, in which the liquid component is replaced with gas. Full definition →