Chem. [f. ACETO- + NITRIL.] An alcoholic cyanide or hydrocyanic ether; the nitrogen compound, or nitril, of the acetic series, C2H3N, called also Ethenyl nitril, and, as the cyanide of the methyl series, Methyl cyanide CH3.CN.
1869. Roscoe, Elem. Chem., 320.
1877. Fownes, Man. Chem., II. 92. The bodies obtained by these two processes are oily liquids … Methyl cyanide, ethenyl-nitril, or acetonitril, boils at 77°.
