Noun
A chemical element with symbol N and atomic number 7. Elemental nitrogen is a colorless, odorless, tasteless, and mostly inert diatomic gas at standard conditions, constituting 78.09% by volume of Earth’s atmosphere. The element nitrogen was discovered as a separable component of air, by Scottish physician Daniel Rutherford, in 1772. It belongs to the pnictogen family. (wikipedia.org)
Word origin: From Greek nitr-, word-forming element used scientifically and indicating “nitrogen, nitrate” or “nitric acid,” from comb. form of Greek nitron + French gène “producing,” from Greek -gen “giving birth to”.