Formic acid Formic acid Formic acid, systematically named methanoic acid, is the simplest carboxylic acid. The chemical formula is HCOOH or HCOH. It is an important intermediate in chemical synthesis and occurs naturally, most notably in some ants. The word "formic" comes from the Latin word for ant, "formica", referring to its early isolation by the distillation of ant bodies. Esters, salts, and the anion derived from formic acid are called formates. Industrially formic acid is produced from methanol. Formic acid is a colorless liquid having a pungent, penetrating odor at room temperature, not unlike the related acetic acid. It is miscible
Preferred IUPAC name used name, usually a trivial name, that may be used in IUPAC nomenclature. Since systematic names often are not human-readable a PIN may be a retained name. Both "PINs" and "retained names" have to be chosen (and established by IUPAC) explicitly, unlike other IUPAC names, which automatically arise from IUPAC nomenclatural rules. Thus, the PIN is sometimes the systematic name (e.g., phenol and acetic acid, instead of benzenol and ethanoic acid), while in other cases, the systematic name was chosen over a very common retained name (e.g., propan-2-one, instead of acetone). A preselected name is a preferred name chosen among