nonhydrogenic
|non-hy-dro-gen-ic|
🇺🇸
/ˌnɑnhaɪdrəˈdʒɛnɪk/
🇬🇧
/ˌnɒnhaɪdrəˈdʒɛnɪk/
not hydrogen-like
Etymology
'nonhydrogenic' is formed from the negative prefix 'non-' (meaning 'not') plus 'hydrogenic' (relating to 'hydrogen'). 'Non-' ultimately comes from Latin 'non' meaning 'not'; 'hydrogenic' derives from 'hydrogen' + adjectival suffix '-ic'.
'hydrogen' comes from modern scientific coinages (French 'hydrogène', from Greek roots 'hydro-' meaning 'water' and '-genes' meaning 'producing'). 'Hydrogen' received the adjective-forming suffix '-ic' to make 'hydrogenic' in scientific usage, and later the productive negative prefix 'non-' was attached in technical contexts to yield 'nonhydrogenic'.
Originally the Greek-derived element name meant 'water-forming' (literally 'producing water'); in modern chemistry 'hydrogen' denotes the element H and 'hydrogenic' means 'relating to or resembling hydrogen'; 'nonhydrogenic' therefore evolved to mean 'not relating to or not resembling hydrogen' (often in the specific, technical sense of 'not hydrogen-like').
Meanings by Part of Speech
Adjective 1
not hydrogenic; not hydrogen-like — used in physics or chemistry to describe atoms, systems, or energy-level structures that do not behave like a hydrogen atom (e.g., because of multi-electron interactions or different potentials).
The Rydberg states of this atom are nonhydrogenic due to strong core polarization and electron correlations.
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Adjective 2
not containing or involving hydrogen (used less commonly), i.e., lacking hydrogen atoms or hydrogen-related reactions/behavior.
Under these conditions the intermediate appears to be nonhydrogenic and does not undergo hydrogen-transfer reactions.
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Last updated: 2026/01/13 12:54