• deliquescent •
Printable Version Pronunciation: de-lê-kwe-sênt • Hear it!
Part of Speech: Adjective
Meaning: 1. Dissolving, especially by absorbing moisture from the air, readily melting and vanishing into thin (moist) air. 2. (Biology) Continuously branching ever smaller, as the limbs of a tree.
Notes: This adjective is the daughter of the verb deliquesce and the mother of the noun deliquescence. You may use it as an adverb with the appropriate suffix: deliquescently. I'm sure you are wondering by now what the difference is between deliquescence and simple liquescence. Liquescence is simple melting while deliquescence is melting away and disappearing.
In Play: Unless you talk a lot about salts, the quintessential deliquescent mineral, today's Good Word will be more useful in its metaphorical sense: "When William Arami learned that his fiancée was far less wealthy than he had thought, his dreams of building his own business suddenly seemed distant and deliquescent." The botanical sense of today's word is unique; I know of no synonym for it. If we push it metaphorically just a little, however, we can say things like: "The deliquescent decisions of life became too much for Hardy Partier, so he found a good therapist".
Word History: Today's Good Word is a mild makeover of Latin deliquescen(t)s, the present participle of deliquescere "to melt away, dissolve, disappear". This verb comprises the prefix de- "away" and liquescere "to become liquid, melt", a variant of liquere "to be liquid, clear". Liquid is a derivative of liquere, but no one seems to know where liquere came from. It does not seem to have landed in any other Proto-Indo-European language. (We hope that the flow of Good Word suggestions from Larry Brady and Colin Burt never deliquesces.)
P.S. - Register for the Daily Good Word E-Mail! - You can get our daily Good Word sent directly to you via e-mail in either HTML or Text format. Go to our Registration Page to sign up today!
