Why did Antoine Lavoisier name oxygen after the Greek words for acid producer?

Antoine Lavoisier named oxygen based on the Greek words for "acid producer" because his experiments led him to believe that this gas was a fundamental component present in all acids.12

During his research into combustion, respiration, and calcination, Lavoisier observed that when substances such as sulfur were burned, they combined with this specific gas to form acidic compounds. Because he concluded that the gas was the essential agent responsible for creating acidity, he derived the name oxygène from the Greek oxys (meaning "acid" or "sharp") and the suffix -gènes (meaning "producer" or "former"). While modern chemistry has since revealed that oxygen is not required for all acids, this naming reflected Lavoisier's foundational role in the chemical revolution, where he successfully replaced the phlogiston theory with a new, experimentally grounded system of chemistry.3241