carbonic acid

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English[edit]

 carbonic acid on Wikipedia
Carbonic acid

Noun[edit]

carbonic acid (uncountable)

  1. A weak unstable acid, H2CO3, known only in solution, and as carbonate salts; it is present in carbonated drinks, and sparkling wine, but decomposes to form carbon dioxide and water.
    Synonym: H₂CO₃
    • 1837, L[etitia] E[lizabeth] L[andon], Ethel Churchill: Or, The Two Brides. [], volume II, London: Henry Colburn, [], →OCLC, pages 110–111:
      Had she lived now, she would have talked of the last delightful lecture on gas, or the charming new treatise on carbonic acid; she would have studied German, and delighted in the society of "talented people."
    • 1898, H.G. Wells, The War of the Worlds, London: William Heinemann, page 144:
      [I]t sank down through the air and poured over the ground in a manner rather liquid than gaseous, abandoning the hills, and streaming into the valleys and ditches and water-courses even as I have heard the carbonic acid gas that pours from volcanic clefts is wont to do.
  2. (obsolete) Carbon dioxide.

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