mercaptan
Americannoun
noun
Etymology
Origin of mercaptan
1825–35; < Latin, short for phrase corpus mercurium captāns body capturing quicksilver
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
But when the gas is processed for transport and sale, producers add a chemical called mercaptan to give it a distinctive “rotten egg” smell that helps make people aware of leaks.
From Seattle Times ● Nov. 18, 2022
The CAA has also ordered the gas companies to add the pungent ethyl mercaptan to the gas cylinders to make it easier to smell gas leaks.
From Reuters ● Dec. 8, 2021
A few pools of ethyl mercaptan the size of the reservoir in the middle of Central Park could, if spread evenly throughout the atmosphere, make the entire planet smell like a gas leak.
From New York Times ● Feb. 17, 2020
Eight Mile residents suffer a long checklist of maladies that residents blame on the mercaptan — headaches, nausea, unexplained rashes, hypertension.
From Los Angeles Times ● Nov. 5, 2016
An average man can detect just a few molecules of butyl mercaptan, and most of us can sense the presence of musk in vanishingly small amounts.
From "The Lives of a Cell" by Lewis Thomas
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
