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Glite Dictionary
formate

formate

1 8.4
A chemical made from formic acid that factories and labs use
  • noun
  • /ˈfɔːrmeɪt/
  • Specialized
: formiato
  • The chemist prepared a solution using sodium formate to study its properties.

Examples

  • Ethyl formate is often utilized in chemical reactions due to its characteristic properties.

  • In the lab, they synthesized various formates for their experiments involving formic acid.

  • The center of the galaxy is ethyl formate which is the same gas that gives rum its smell.

    Molly's Game (2017)

  • We studied the hydroesterification reaction of 2-pyridylmethyl formate with alkenes using a ruthenium catalytic system to provide one-carbon elongated esters.

    Blog text (17)

Surface Forms

formate singular
formates plural

Morphology

formate = formic acid + formic (opaque) = form + ate

The word is formed by the chemical naming pattern (salt/ester suffix '-ate' from 'formic acid'); this relies on specific chemical knowledge and is not transparently derived from the common word 'form'.

Etymology

The word formate comes from formic, from Latin formica 'ant', because formic acid was first found in ants, and the chemical ending -ate means a 'salt or ester'. So a formate is a salt or ester made from formic acid.