Relating to or containing ammonia, a pungent gas made of nitrogen and hydrogen.
From ammonia (derived from sal ammoniac, 'salt of Ammon' from Egyptian temple of Amun) plus the suffix -ical meaning 'relating to.' The term evolved as chemistry developed to describe substances with ammonia properties.
The word 'ammonical' connects back to ancient Egypt—sal ammoniac was named after the Temple of Amun, yet it took hundreds of years before scientists isolated ammonia as the active compound. It's a linguistic fossil showing how new chemistry was explained using old names!
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