An organic chemical compound derived from benzene that is the basis for making many synthetic dyes and other industrial chemicals.
From Portuguese 'anil' (indigo plant), from Spanish, from Arabic 'an-nil'. The compound was isolated from indigo but now synthesized from coal tar; '-ine' is a common chemistry suffix for basic organic compounds.
Aniline's discovery in 1826 was accidental—a chemist simply heated indigo in a furnace and found a new oily liquid—and this mistake launched the synthetic dye industry, which made Victorian fashion possible and revolutionized industrial chemistry.
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