Meaning

noun a colorless liquid hydrocarbon; highly inflammable; carcinogenic; the simplest of the aromatic compounds

originEtymology tree German Benzoe Proto-Indo-European *-nós Proto-Indo-European *-iHnos Proto-Italic *-īnos Latin -īnusder. German -in German Benzinbor. English benzine English benzene A technical term in chemistry, adopted in English in 1835 as benzine (benzene from 1872), from German Benzin, which was coined in 1833 by Eilhardt Mitscherlich based on Benzoesäure (“benzoic acid”), plus the technical…

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 3.0