‖ scoria
(ˈskɔərɪə)
Pl. scoriæ (ˈskɔərɪiː) and (rarely) ˈscorias. Cf. scorium, scory.
[L. scōria dross, a. Gr. σκωρία, f. σκῶρ dung. Cf. F. scorie.]
1. The slag or dross remaining after the smelting out of a metal from its ore. Also transf.
| 1398 Trevisa Barth. De P.R. xvi. xliv. (1495) 568 Syndre hyght Scoria and is the fylth of yren that is clensyd therfro in fyre. 1601 Holland Pliny xxxiii. iv. II. 467 The grosse substance cast up from the pot or vessell & swimming aloft..is named Scoria. 1683 Digby Chym. Secrets 105 See that you do not cast away the Scoria. 1758 Reid tr. Macquer's Chym. I. 146 These floating matters take the name of Scoriæ. 1878 Newcomb Pop. Astron. iii. ii. 245 Dark patches, like scoria, floating on the molten surface of the photosphere. 1887 A. M. Brown Anim. Alkaloids 144 Those alkaloids and extractive matters..must be regarded as veritable scoria, resulting in the processes of physiological combustion of the elements of the organic tissues. |
| fig. 1808 Bentham Sc. Reform 41 So redundant is the population of the Inner House found to be,..so large the proportion of the mass that runs into scoriæ [etc.]. 1836 Emerson Nature, Lang. Wks. (Bohn) II. 154 ‘Material objects’, said a French philosopher, ‘are necessarily kinds of scoriæ of the substantial thoughts of the creator’. |
2. Rough clinker-like masses formed by the cooling of the surface of molten lava upon exposure to the air, and distended by the expansion of imprisoned gases.
| 1792 J. Belknap Hist. New Hampsh. III. 37 A company of persons..have found further evidences of internal fires; particularly a large quantity of scoriæ. 1830 Herschel Stud. Nat. Phil. 294 The ejected scoriæ of volcanoes are receptacles in which mineral products previously unknown are constantly discovered. 1896 F. M. Crawford Corleone ii. (1898) 16 A barren stretch of burnt lava and scoriæ, which had descended..from some lower crater of the volcano. |
| attrib. 1872 C. King Sierra Nevada xi. 235 The further ascent lies up along scoria ridge of loose, red, pumiceous rock. |