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Webster 1913 Edition


Acid

Ac′id

,
Adj.
[L.
acidus
sour, fr. the root
ak
to be sharp: cf. F.
acide
. Cf.
Acute
.]
1.
Sour, sharp, or biting to the taste; tart; having the taste of vinegar: as, acid fruits or liquors. Also fig.: Sour-tempered.
He was stern and his face as
acid
as ever.
A. Trollope.
2.
Of or pertaining to an acid;
as,
acid
reaction
.

Ac′id

,
Noun.
1.
A sour substance.
2.
(Chem.)
One of a class of compounds, generally but not always distinguished by their sour taste, solubility in water, and reddening of vegetable blue or violet colors. They are also characterized by the power of destroying the distinctive properties of alkalies or bases, combining with them to form salts, at the same time losing their own peculiar properties. They all contain hydrogen, united with a more negative element or radical, either alone, or more generally with oxygen, and take their names from this negative element or radical. Those which contain no oxygen are sometimes called
hydracids
in distinction from the others which are called
oxygen acids
or
oxacids
.
☞ In certain cases, sulphur, selenium, or tellurium may take the place of oxygen, and the corresponding compounds are called respectively
sulphur acids
or
sulphacids
,
selenium acids
, or
tellurium acids
. When the hydrogen of an acid is replaced by a positive element or radical, a salt is formed, and hence acids are sometimes named as salts of hydrogen; as hydrogen nitrate for nitric acid, hydrogen sulphate for sulphuric acid, etc. In the old chemistry the name
acid
was applied to the oxides of the negative or nonmetallic elements, now sometimes called anhydrides.

Webster 1828 Edition


Acid

AC'ID

,
Adj.
[L. acidus. See Edge.]
Sour, sharp or biting to the taste, having the taste of vinegar, as acid fruits or liquors.

AC'ID

,
Noun.
In chimistry, acids are a class of substances, so denominated from their taste, or the sensation of sourness which they produce on the tongue. But the name is now given to several substances, which have not this characteristic in an eminent degree. The properties, by which they are distinguished, are these:
1.
When taken into the mouth, they occasion the taste of sourness. They are corrosive, unless diluted with water; and some of them are caustic.
2.
They change certain vegetable blue colors to red, and restore blue colors which have been turned green, or red colors which have been turned blue by an alkali.
3.
Most of them unite with water in all proportions, with a condensation of volume and evolution of heat; and many of them have so strong an attraction for water, as not to appear in the solid state.
4.
They have a stronger affinity for alkalies, than these have for any other substance; and in combining them, most of them produce effervescence.
5.
They unite with earths, alkalies and metallic oxyds, forming interesting compounds, usually called salts.
6.
With few exceptions, they are volatilized or decomposed by a moderate heat.
The old chimists divided acids into animal, vegetable, and mineral - a division now deemed inaccurate. They are also divided into oxygen acids, hydrogen acids, and acids destitute of these acidifiers. Another division is into acids with simple radicals, acids with double radicals, acids with triple radicals, acids with unknown radicals, compound acids, dubious acids, and acids destitute of oxygen.

Definition 2024


àcid

àcid

See also: acid, ACID, and Acid

Catalan

Adjective

àcid m (feminine àcida, masculine plural àcids, feminine plural àcides)

  1. acid; sour; tart (having a sharp taste such as that of vinegar or a lemon)
  2. acidic (pertaining to an acid)
  3. (mineralogy) acidic (containing a high proportion of silica)
  4. (chemistry) acidic (having a pH less than 7)

Noun

àcid m (plural àcids)

  1. acid (a food with a sharp taste)
  2. (chemistry) acid (a substance which is capable of providing H+ ions to a base to form a salt)
  3. (slang, drugs) acid; LSD

Derived terms

  • hidroxiàcid (hydroxy acid)
  • oxoàcid (oxoacid)