aqua regia

English

Etymology

Borrowed from Latin aqua regia (literally royal water), so named because it is one of the few solvents capable of dissolving noble metals.

Pronunciation

  • IPA(key): /ˈɑː.kwə ˈɹeɪ.ɡi.ə/, /ˌækwə ˈɹiː.ʒə/, enPR: ăʹkwə-rēʹjē-ə
  • (file)

Noun

aqua regia (uncountable) (abbreviation A.R.)

  1. (inorganic chemistry, archaic) A mixture of three parts concentrated hydrochloric acid to one part concentrated nitric acid, named for its ability to dissolve gold.
    Synonyms: aqua regis, nitro-hydrochloric acid
    • 2005, D.J. Krus, Elements of Propositional Calculus:
      Consider another example. 'If gold is placed in aqua regia then it dissolves.' Aqua regia is a mixture of nitric and hydrochloric acids that dissolves gold or platinum. Observation of gold dissolving in aqua regia (argument 1 1) lends credence to the above conditional statement.
      Not placing the gold into aqua regia and gold not dissolving (argument 0 0) does not disprove the truth-value of this conditional.

Coordinate terms

Translations

Latin

Alternative forms

Etymology

aqua (water) + regia (royal). From being a liquid capable of dissolving the most incorruptible of metals, gold.

Noun

aqua regia

  1. (alchemy) aqua regia

Coordinate terms

Descendants

  • English: aqua regia
This article is issued from Wiktionary. The text is licensed under Creative Commons - Attribution - Sharealike. Additional terms may apply for the media files.