The word "ketone" was coined in 1848 by the German chemist Leopold Gmelin. See: Leopold Gmelin, ed., Handbuch der organischen Chemie: Organische Chemie im Allgemeinen … (Handbook of organic chemistry: Organic chemistry in general … ), 4th ed., (Heidelberg, (Germany): Karl Winter, 1848), volume 1, p. 40. From page 40: "Zu diesen Syndesmiden scheinen auch diejenigen Verbindungen zu gehören, die als Acetone im Allegemeinen (Ketone?) bezeichnet werden." (To these syndesmides*, those compounds also seem to belong, which are designated as acetones in general (ketones?).") [*Note: In 1844, the French chemist Auguste Laurent suggested a new nomenclature for organic compounds. One of his new classes of compounds was "syndesmides", which were compounds formed by the combination of two or more simpler organic molecules (from the Greek σύνδεσμος (syndesmos, union) + -ide (indicating a group of related compounds)). For example, acetone could be formed by the dry distillation of metal acetates, so acetone was the syndesmide of two acetate ions. See: Laurent, Auguste (1844) "Classification chimique,"Comptes rendus, 19 : 1089–1100 ; see especially p. 1097.
