Etymology

pnictogen

P3N1I1C3T1O1G2E1N1

Today it means: Any element from group 15 of the periodic table, which includes nitrogen, phosphorus, arsenic, antimony and bismuth. Full definition →

Ancient Greek πνίγω ← Pre-Greek
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The story

  1. Pre-Greek · derived from
  2. Ancient Greek · derived fromπνίγω“to choke, to stifle”
  3. English todaypnictogen

From Ancient Greek πνικτός (pniktós) + -gen. The first element derives from Ancient Greek πνίγω (pnígō, “to choke, to stifle”) (a property of nitrogen), which is ultimately Pre-Greek. By surface analysis, pnicto- + -gen.

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.