suffix. 1. Occas. Eng. ad. L. -ānus, perh. orig. a. Fr. -ain; used, chiefly for sake of distinction, in words that have a parallel form in -an, as germane, humane, urbane, also in mundane.
2. Chemical formative. † a. Arbitrary ending proposed by Davy for names of monochlorides, now obsolete. (See Watts, Dict. Chem., IV. 121.)
b. Organic Chem. In the systematic nomenclature proposed by Hofmann 1866, the formative of the names of the saturated hydrocarbons of composition C11H2n+2, also called paraffines; as Methane CH4 (formerly Methyl hydride), Ethane C2H4, Propane C3H8, Butane or Quartane C4H10, Pentane C5H12, Hexane C6H14, etc. [The formation is purely imitative; the Greek feminine patronymic endings -ene, -ine, -one (-ήνη, -ίνη, -ώνη) were already in partial use in naming hydrocarbon derivatives. Hofmann proposed the adoption of the entire vowel series -ane, -ene, -ine, -one, -une, and the strict application of these to hydrocarbons of the types CnH2n+2, CnH2n, CnH2n–2, CnH2n–4, CnH2n–6, or their analogues, respectively. So far as concerns the first three members this has been generally adopted.]
