1942, short name for the group of drugs derived from sulfanilamide ("amide of sulfanilic acid," 1937, which is so called because it is a sulphonic derivative of the dye-stuff aniline), and shortened from that word. The usual British English spelling is sulpha.
Entries linking to sulfa
aniline n.
chemical base used in making colorful dyes, 1843, coined 1841 by German chemist Carl Julius Fritzsche and adopted by Hofmann, ultimately from Portuguese anil "the indigo shrub," from Arabic an-nil "the indigo," assimilated from al-nil (with Arabic definite article al-), from Persian nila, ultimately from Sanskrit nili "indigo," from nilah "dark blue."
With suffix -ine indicating "derived substance" (see -ine (1); also see -ine (2) for the later, more precise, use of the suffix in chemistry). Discovered in 1826 in indigo and at first called crystallin; it became commercially important in 1856 when mauve dye was made from it. As an adjective from 1860.