lixivial

English

Alternative forms

• lixival

Etymology

From Latin lixivius, lixīvus, from lixa (“ashes, lye ashes, lye”). Compare French lixiviel.

Adjective

lixivial (comparative more lixivial, superlative most lixivial)

1. (obsolete or historical) Of or derived from lye or wood ashes.
   • 1679, Robert Boyle, Experiments and Notes about the Producibleness of Chymical Principles:

     […] we obtain'd, more than once, out of 16 ounces of salt-petre, 10 ounces of fix'd nitre, very lixivial in tast and operation, and of a pleasant greenish blue colour, deeper than salt of tartar will usually be brought to, by being, in a crucible, kept twenty times as long in a strong fire.

   • 1752, Henry Bracken, Farriery improv'd: or, A compleat treatise upon the art of farriery‎^[1]:

     But such may rest satisfied that those dextrous and conscientious Artificers the Chymists, can furnish us with a Lixival Salt of any Plant we want, made from the Cineres Clavellati or Pot-Ashes.

Related terms

• lixivium