nitrogen Look up nitrogen at Dictionary.com
1794, from Fr. nitrogène, coined 1790 by Fr. chemist Jean Antoine Chaptal (1756-1832), from comb. form of Gk. nitron "sodium carbonate" (from Egyptian ntr) + Fr. gène "producing." The gas was discovered in analysis of nitric acid. Earlier name (1772) was mephitic air. The word nitre was in use in late M.E. for "potassium nitrate, saltpetre" (c.1400).