'amine-destroying' originates from Modern English, specifically the combination of the noun 'amine' and the present-participle form 'destroying', where 'amine' refers to the chemical class derived from ammonia and 'destroying' is from the verb 'destroy' meaning to break down or remove.

'amine' was coined in the 19th century in chemistry (from French 'amine', ultimately from 'ammonia' via modern European scientific usage), while 'destroy' comes from Old French 'destruire' and Latin 'destruere' (through Middle English 'destroyen'), and the compound 'amine-destroying' is a modern English technical formation combining these elements.

Initially, 'destroy' broadly meant 'to unbuild, to tear down' (from Latin 'destruere'), but in modern technical contexts it has extended to mean 'chemically decompose' or 'remove a functional group'; thus 'amine-destroying' now conveys chemical decomposition or removal of amine groups.