‖ aquafortis
(ˌeɪkwəˈfɔːtɪs)
[L.; = strong water.]
1. The early scientific, and still the popular, name of the Nitric Acid of commerce (dilute HNO3), a powerful solvent and corrosive.
| 1601 Weever Mirr. Martyrs D j, For inke strong aqua⁓fortis. 1626 Bacon Sylva §789 Dissolve the Iron in the Aqua-Fortis. 1762 H. Walpole Vertue's Anecd. Paint. (1786) IV. 178 Lord Lovat..etched in aquafortis by William Hogarth. 1878 Huxley Physiogr. vi. 86 Nitric acid, the substance known commonly as aquafortis. |
† 2. Also used of other powerful solvents. Obs.
| 1607 Topsell Four-footed Beasts 308 Wash all his tail with aqua fortis, or strong water, made in this sort: take of green copperas, of allum, of each, one pound,—of white copperas a quartern. 1875 Ure Dict. Arts I. 202 Aquafortis did not always mean nitric acid. |
3. fig.
| 1611 Middleton & Dek. Roar. Girl Wks. 1873 III. 156 Mony is that Aqua fortis, that eates into many a maiden⁓head. 1670 Eachard Contempt Clergy 55 The blotts and blurrs of our sins must be taken out by the aqua-fortis of our tears. 1873 Symonds Grk. Poets viii. 256 The sceptical aqua⁓fortis of his age is as strong in Aristophanes as in Euripides. |