etymology - Why does gasoline have the word "gas" in it, if it's never gaseous?


The etymology according to Dictionary.com:



gasoline
coined 1865 as gasolene, from gas (q.v.) + chemical suffix -ine/-ene. current spelling is 1871; shortened form gas first recorded Amer.Eng. 1905. Gas station first recorded 1932.



Why was it originally called "gasoline"?



Answer



The Oxford English Dictionary writes that there is another step in the etymology--ol:



Etymology: < gas n.1 + -ol suffix (as in benzol n.) + -ene comb. form, -ine suffix1.



The root gas has a meaning which doesn't necessarily mean gaseous in general. It is a specific type of gas. The definition which I think applies here is:



Gas of a kind suitable to be burnt for illuminating or heating purposes; originally = coal-gas n., but now including (a) various artificial mixtures consisting chiefly of carburetted hydrogen, and distinguished by defining words indicating the source from which they are obtained, as water-gas, oil-gas, etc.; and (b) = natural gas n.).



Then, the ol suffix indicated that they were using an oil-based form:



Forming the names of oils and oil-derived compounds (in systematic use in Chem. now replaced by -ole suffix2), as benzol, furfurol, indol (now usually indole), myrrol, pyrrol (now usually pyrrole).



Then the chemical suffix ene or ine was added. So gasoline, when broken down into its parts, perfectly describes what petroleum is: an oil form of a natural gas. The OED writes that the first usage of gasolene was in 1865, and was already being used to refer to what the UK call petrol.


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