nitrous oxide

Meanings

1. 1
   noun

   a colorless, mildly sweet-smelling gas, N2O, used as an anesthetic and propellant and also emitted as a powerful greenhouse gas

   The dentist administered a mixture of oxygen and nitrous oxide to reduce the patient's pain.

Formed from nitrous and oxide. Nitrous comes from New Latin nitrosus, based on Latin nitrum, 'natron,' and in chemical naming marks a lower nitrogen valence than nitric. Oxide was borrowed from French oxyde, built from the word for oxygen plus the chemical suffix -ide. Nitrous oxide is recorded in English from the late eighteenth century.

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