Emily Dickinson Lexicon

A-ZOTE', n. [Gr. α privative and ζωη, life, or ζωτικος, vital.]

A species of gas, called also mephitic air, and atmospheric mephitis, on account of its fatal effects upon animal life. It is tasteless, and inodorous: it exists in common air, mixed with oxygen, and constitutes about seventy-nine hundredth parts by volume of atmospheric air. It may be obtained, in large quantities, from the muscular fibers of animals. Combined with hydrogen, it forms volatile alkali; and it enters into the composition of most animal substances. It is the radical of nitric acid, and is now called nitrogen gas, or nitrogen.