alkali
pronunciation
How to pronounce alkali in British English:
UK [ˈælkəlaɪ]
How to pronounce alkali in American English:
US [ˈælkəˌlaɪ]
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- Noun:
- any of various water-soluble compounds capable of turning litmus blue and reacting with an acid to form a salt and water
- a mixture of soluble salts found in arid soils and some bodies of water; detrimental to agriculture
Word Origin
- alkali
- alkali: [14] English acquired alkali via Latin from Arabic al-qalīy ‘the ashes’, a derivative of the verb qalay ‘fry’. The implicit reference is to the plant saltwort (Latin name Salsola kali), which was burnt to obtain its alkaline ashes (Chaucer’s canon’s yeoman, the alchemist’s assistant, mentions it: ‘Salt tartre, alcaly, and salt preparat, And combust matieres, and coagulat’, 1386). The modern chemical sense of a compound which combines with an acid to form a salt was first used in 1813, by the chemist Sir Humphry Davy.
- alkali (n.)
- late 14c., "soda ash," from Medieval Latin alkali, from Arabic al-qaliy "the ashes, burnt ashes" (of saltwort, a plant growing in alkaline soils), from qala "to roast in a pan." The modern chemistry sense is from 1813.
Example
- 1. Most of the injuries reported so far have been alkali burns .
- 2. It was not quite the sudden shift from litmus red to blue of an acid being neutralised by an alkali , but it was not far off .
- 3. One of the first inklings that chemistry has an underlying pattern was the discovery , early in the 19th century , of lithium , sodium and potassium-known collectively as the alkali metals .
- 4. At the hong kong conference , mr. chen cited chinese miners ' ' sabotage of nature , ' processors ' ' pollution by waste water , slag and gas in smelting and separation ' and the industry 's large-scale use of acid and alkali .
- 5. To get similar characteristics from composites , the carbon fibres are first chemically treated with an alkali which creates lots of tiny pits on their surface . This massively increases their surface area and hence the charge they can hold , but without impairing the physical strength of the material .