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I came across this word in F.A. Cotton and Wilkinson "Inoragnic chemistry"on
page 664, they define "anation reactions" in which an anion displaces the
H2O
from the coordination sphere. I wanted to know the "literal meaning"
of the word
anation, this word is not listed in Webster's Unabridged Dictionary.
Dear Farooq, As we corresponded about this, I thought I'd try to answer. "Anation" sounds like it was coined by Cotton and Wilkinson. Most scientific terms were coined at some point, and not all of them, perhaps very few of them, make it into the wider linguistic world. (I don't find "nucleophile" or "hydroboration" in Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, either.) I am not particularly surprised that "anation" didn't make it into Webster, even into an unabridged dictionary. The word is obviously intended to be analogous to "hydration," in which anions may be displaced from around a metal ion. "Hydration" = "hydr" (water, from Greek hydror) + "ation", from "ate", a Latinate verb suffix, + "ion", a Latinate suffix changing an "ate" verb to a noun)Therefore "anation" means the displacement, from a metal ion, of other ligands (i.e. water) by anions.
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