amyl acetate

American  

noun

Chemistry.

1. banana oil.

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amyl acetate British  

noun

1. another name (no longer in technical usage) for pentyl acetate

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Etymology

Origin of amyl acetate

First recorded in 1865–70

Example Sentences

Humans are more sensitive than dogs to amyl acetate, the main odorant in bananas, for instance, presumably because identifying ripe fruit was more important to our own ancestors and irrelevant to those of dogs.

From The Guardian • May 11, 2017

Purified air blows from two of the openings; the third assails them with a mix of air and amyl acetate, an odorous chemical that smells like bananas.

From Time Magazine Archive

The best is one which I use, made of pyroxylin, the soluble cotton of commerce, dissolved in amyl acetate and acetone with some other substances that make it perfectly sterile.

From The War Terror by Reeve, Arthur B. (Arthur Benjamin)

The ethers are returned as ethyl acetate, but from fractional distillation amyl acetate was found to be present.

From Travels in West Africa by Kingsley, Mary H.

Originally it was a mixture of nitro-glycerine and nitro-cellulose, with amyl acetate as solvent.

From Nitro-Explosives: A Practical Treatise by Sanford, P. Gerald (Percy Gerald)