Etymology

mercapto-

Today it means: an organosulfur compound that contains a carbon-bonded sulfhydryl or sulphydryl Full definition →

Latin mercurium captāns ← Proto-Italic *kapjō ← Proto-Indo-European *kapyéti
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The story

  1. LatinMercurius
  2. Latinmercurium
  3. Proto-Indo-European*kap-
  4. Proto-Indo-European*kapyéti
  5. Proto-Italic*kapjō
  6. Latincapiō
  7. Latincaptō
  8. Latincaptāns
  9. Latinmercurium captāns
  10. English todaymercapto-

The term mercaptan was introduced in 1832 by the Danish chemist William Christopher Zeise and is derived from the Latin mercurium captāns (capturing mercury) because the thiolate group bonds very strongly with mercury compounds.

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.