▪ I. coacervate, a.
(as next, or kəʊəˈsɜːvət)
[ad. L. coacervāt-us, pa. pple. of coacervāre; see next.]
† a. Heaped together; gathered into one place. Obs.
| 1626 Bacon Sylva §846 Whether the Spirits be Coacervate, or Diffused. 1677 Hale Prim. Orig. Man. i. i. 5 Empty spaces, either coacervate or interspersed. |
b. Bot. Clustered.
| 1845 Florist's Jrnl. VI. 246 Coacervate, growing together, clustered. 1928 B. D. Jackson Gloss. Bot. 81/2 Coacervate, clustered. |
▪ II. coacervate, v. Now rare or Obs.
(kəʊˈæsəveɪt)
[f. L. coacervāt- ppl. stem of coacervāre to heap together (f. co- together + acervāre to heap).]
trans. To heap together, gather into a heap, accumulate; also fig. Hence coˈacervated ppl. a.
| 1623 Cockeram, Coacervate, to heape vp together. 1631 R. H. Arraignm. Whole Creature xvii. 303 Many moe examples..which..Historians..have Coacervated and gathered as in a Bundle. 1794 Sullivan View Nat. I. vii. 48 These shells, so co-acervated, or dispersed. |
| 1841 Blackw. Mag. L. 152 Coacervated facts. |
▪ III. coacervate, n. Chem.
(kəʊˈæsəveɪt)
[Backformation from next.]
An aggregate forming viscous drops in a colloidal solution. Also attrib.
| 1929 De Jong & Kruyt in Proc. Konink. Akad. van Wetenschappen te Amsterdam XXXII. 853 The coacervate is a drop or a layer, in which the particles have flocked together as bees in a swarm. 1948 Glasstone Physical Chem. (ed. 2) xiv. 1254 The droplets, or coacervates, are formed most readily when two hydrophilic sols carrying opposite charges..are mixed in suitable amounts. 1962 Listener 3 May 769/2 There must be many intermediate stages between mixtures of large molecules and micro-organisms. One of these may be the so-called ‘coacervate drops’. It has been discovered that certain mixtures of large molecules..will form drops which have great stability and which will scavenge and absorb other molecules from solution. |