[f. L. acr-is sharp, pungent + olē-re to smell + -IN(E = Gr. -ινη daughter, derivative; here used to form a term analogous to glycerin.] A colorless acrid liquid, of pungent irritating odor, formed in the destructive distillation of glycerin (from which it is derived by the abstraction of two molecules of water, thus, Glycerin C3H5(OH)2, Acrolein C3H4O″). It is the aldehyde of allyl, produced by the oxidation of allyl alcohol, and itself rapidly oxidizing to acrylic acid.
1869. Roscoe, Elem. Chem., xxxvi. 388. Allyl alcohol … is oxidized in presence of air and platinum to acrolein and acrylic acid, which stand to this alcohol in the same relation as aldehyde and acetic acid stand to ethyl alcohol.
