Water

H2O is the molecular formula of water, also called Dihydrogen monoxide.

Old English wæter (noun), wæterian (verb), of Germanic origin; related to Dutch water, German Wasser, from an Indo-European root shared by Russian voda (compare with vodka), also by Latin unda ‘wave’ and Greek hudōr ‘water’.

The Greek cognate húdōr ('water') is the basis of numerous English words with the prefix hydr-, including hydrate, hydrant, hydrangea, hydraulic, hydrogen (the element that generates water when oxidised), hydrocarbon, hydroelectric, hydrofoil and a whole host of more specialized scientific words.

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Dinesh ^club

Water is utterly familiar and yet altogether elusive. That is why it has been described in terms of negation. It is odourless. It is colourless. It is tasteless. It is rarely, if ever, located in its pure state. The epitaph upoin the head stone of John Keates, “Here lies one whose name was write in water,” is the token of one who believed that he had left no trace. Water is utterly mysterious. Images of the river, whether in photograph or painting, never really took “like” the river itself. Until a relatively late date the natural philosophers and scientists considered water to be an indivisible element, an only after 1783, though the combined efforts of Cavendish, Watt and Lavoisier was it recognised to be an inorganic compound of hydrogen and oxygen. But still ancient beliefs clustered around the chemistry, with oxygen considered to be the “father” and hydrogen the “mother” of the substance.

Yet water is the matrix and nurse of all life. It is perhaps the oldest thing upon earth. It has remained unchanged, in every respect, for 3,500 million years. The seas were formed in the depths of pre-Cambrian time, and there is not one drop more or less than in that inconceivable beginning. . . . Page 111

8 months ago. Edited 8 months ago.

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