I agree with the other answers. No serious chemist uses any word other than "water" in whatever language the chemist uses. However, the name does appear to be following the [established rules][1] for the [systematic naming][2] of [binary main group][3] [covalent compounds][4]. >Take for example $\ce{N2O5}$: 1. We list the elements in order of increasing electronegativity: nitrogen oxygen 2. We convert the second element's names in "-ide": nitrogen oxide. 3. We use prefixes to indicate the number of each element. Note the the "-a-" in "penta-" goes away to make pentoxide easier to pronounce: [dinitrogen pentoxide][5]. We need this sort of system to give us unambiguous names for binary compounds, especially when, for example, there are multiple oxides of nitrogen: [$\ce{N2O}$][6], [$\ce{NO}$][7], [$\ce{N2O3}$][8], [$\ce{NO2}$][9], [$\ce{N2O4}$][10], and [$\ce{N2O5}$][11]. Note that we rarely use the "mono-" prefix: $\ce{NO2}$ is nitrogen dioxide. And we never use prefixes with the binary hydrides. The acidic ones are all named like ionic compounds, as are the metal hydrides, and the non-acidic ones all have common names that are used so frequently it is silly to use more complex names: - $\ce{NaH}$ [sodium hydride](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sodium_hydride) - $\ce{BH3}$ [borane](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Borane) - $\ce{CH4}$ [methane](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Methane) - $\ce{NH3}$ [ammonia](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ammonia) - $\ce{H2O}$ [water](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Properties_of_water) - $\ce{HF}$ [hydrogen fluoride](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hydrogen_fluoride) - $\ce{PH3}$ [phosphine](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phosphine) - $\ce{H2S}$ [hydrogen sulfide](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hydrogen_sulfide) - $\ce{HN3}$ [hydrogen azide](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hydrazoic_acid) >Water would thus be **hydrogen oxide** if anything. Even though there are other possible oxides of hydrogen (or hydrides of oxygen), they have different names based on the anions: - $\ce{H2O}$ - [water (hydrogen oxide)](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Water) - $\ce{HO2}$ - [hydrogen superoxide][12] - $\ce{H2O2}$ - [hydrogen peroxide][13] - $\ce{H2O_n]$ - [trioxidane (n=3), tetraoxidane (n=4), pentaoxidane (n=5)] [14] [1]: http://pac.iupac.org/publications/pac/pdf/1971/pdf/2801x0001.pdf [2]: http://www.chem.purdue.edu/gchelp/nomenclature/covalent.htm [3]: http://www.kentchemistry.com/links/naming/NameCov.htm [4]: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Binary_compound#Binary_covalent_compounds [5]: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/N2O5 [6]: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nitrous_oxide [7]: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nitric_oxide [8]: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dinitrogen_tetroxide [9]: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nitrogen_dioxide [10]: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dinitrogen_trioxide [11]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dinitrogen_pentoxide [12]: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hydrogen_superoxide [13]: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hydrogen_peroxide [14]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hydrogen_polyoxide