Xylyl Meaning and Origins

Hello, you have A Way with Words.

Hi, I’m Olivia Levy, and I’m calling from Somerville, New Jersey.

Hi, Olivia. How are you doing?

Good. How are you?

All right.

We’re glad to have you. What’s going on, Olivia?

So last year I had this crazy spelling word on my spelling list for spelling bee,

And it was zolial, X-Y-L-Y-L.

And everybody was like, oh, my God, what is that word?

Because we had never seen it before.

So I was wondering what it means.

Oh, X-Y-L-Y-L?

Mm—

Yeah, xylo.

So did any of you guys look it up in a dictionary?

I think we did, but it didn’t make sense to us what it said.

Yeah, this is a very unusual word.

I’m looking in the Oxford English Dictionary, which gives the definition, the hypothetical radical C8H9 of xylene and its derivatives.

Oh, that’s brilliant. I guess that settles that. Thanks for calling me, Olivia. No, I’m kidding.

Does that help, Olivia?

Not really.

Yeah, yeah, I agree with you there. It’s not very helpful at all.

Unless you’re in a spelling bee or you’re going to become a chemist or you really want to outsmart people in Scrabble, I doubt you’re ever going to run across this word again, xylul.

Definitely.

Let me give it a try because there are a couple of interesting things to say about this word.

Xylyl, X-Y-L-Y-L, refers to a group of atoms that are derived from a clear flammable liquid called xylene, X-Y-L-E-N-E.

And one of the sources of this chemical xylene is wood tar.

And that’s a sticky substance that can be made from burned wood that’s squeezed really hard.

And that’s how the chemical xylene got its name.

And you probably know that scientists like to invent words based on Greek and Latin words.

And the really cool thing is that xylene comes from the ancient Greek word for wood, xylon.

That’s cool.

It’s very picturesque.

And I’ll tell you what’s even cooler, Olivia.

There’s another word in English that comes from the Greek word for wood that you already know.

I know you know this word.

Xylophone?

Yes.

Yes.

That’s it yes xylophone comes from greek words that literally mean wooden voice because you know

A xylophone has all those wooden bars of different sizes and you beat on them and and music comes out.

Right it’s from the same root as xylene and xylol and that’s probably the coolest thing I know about

Xylol is that it goes all the way back to an ancient Greek word for wood and just keep it in

Your back pocket in case you’re ever playing Scrabble. Good idea. Well, thank you so much for

Sharing this with you. Are you going to use it for anything else? I’ll probably use it to stump

My friends. To stump your friends? Perfect. Yeah, hangman, Scrabble. How’d you do in the spelling bee?

Well, I won in my class and then in the school I was second place. Wow. That’s not bad. That’s

Pretty good.

Well done.

Thank you.

Yeah, Grant and I have both been in spelling bees together, and it makes me really nervous.

Yeah, believe it or not, we’ve been the expert spellers, and we’re both looking at each other like,

What are we doing up here?

I’m not that good.

Thank you for talking with us, Olivia.

We really appreciate it, and I hope you’re well, and take care of yourself.

All right?

Thank you.

You too.

All right.

Bye-bye.

Okay.

Thanks for this interesting question.

Thank you.

Bye.

Bye.

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