chirality

Term: chirality

Literally meaning: “handedness”

Origin: Anc Greek

χειρ/khir(=hand)Chiral +μέρος/meros(=part)

-lity(=suffix of having a property or ability)

 Coined/History

Around 1850 Louis Pasteur suggested that molecules could be chiral. The term was coined by W.H. Thompson. (Lord Kelvin) in 1894.but K. Mislow proposed to use the term chirality in chemistry in 1962.

Gal J Louis Pasteur, language, and molecular chirality. I. Background and dissymmetry.  Chirality2011 Jan;23(1):1-16. doi: 10.1002/chir.20866.

 

Definition

Chirality is the property of a assymetry in which the objects are non-superposable on its mirror image such as left and right hand.