cyanic acid

9.7

A colorless, very poisonous liquid acid that evaporates easily and breaks down into ammonia and carbon dioxide in water

noun
/ˈsaɪənɪk ˈæsɪd/

Specialized

: ácido cianhídrico

When cyanic acid comes into contact with water, it rapidly decomposes into ammonia and carbon dioxide.

Examples

Laboratory handling of cyanic acid requires strict safety precautions due to its highly poisonous and volatile nature.
Researchers discovered a new reaction pathway involving the intermediate formation of cyanic acid.
The laboratory used cyanic acid in their experiments.
Is cyanic acid harmful to humans?
Laboratory handling of cyanic acid requires strict safety precautions due to its highly poisonous and volatile nature.
When cyanic acid comes into contact with water, it rapidly decomposes into ammonia and carbon dioxide.
Researchers discovered a new reaction pathway involving the intermediate formation of cyanic acid.

Surface Forms

cyanic acid singular

cyanic acids plural

Morphology

cyanic + acid

The term is a specialized chemical name: the modifier 'cyanic' is a technical lexical item (not a common adjective) that B1 learners will not know, and knowing 'acid' alone does not allow them to infer the specific poisonous substance HCNO. Because the critical semantic information is carried by an uncommon, domain-specific morpheme rather than by transparent everyday vocabulary, the overall meaning is not derivable from the parts.

Etymology

Cyanic acid gets its name from cyan, a word for a deep blue color. Early chemists called chemicals that made blue dyes or blue salts 'cyan', so the name stayed even though cyanic acid itself is a colorless, poisonous acid.