An archaic chemical name for nitrogen, literally meaning 'not supporting life' in French.
From French 'azote' (literally 'a-' not + 'zoe' life), coined by French chemist Jean-Antoine Chaptal around 1790 because nitrogen gas cannot sustain combustion or animal respiration.
The term 'azote' was abandoned by 1810 in favor of Lavoisier's 'nitrogen,' yet it haunts chemistry terminology—every azo dye, azotic acid, and azotemia carries the ghost of this obsolete element name.
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