lava
(ˈlɑːvə)
[a. It. lava (f. lavare to wash: see lave v.1), orig. ‘a streame or gutter suddainly caused by raine’ (Florio 1611), applied in the Neapolitan dialect to a lava-stream from Vesuvius; hence adopted in literary It., where it developed the senses represented by 2 and 3 below. Hence Sp., Pg., Ger., Du., Da., Sw. lava, F. lave.]
† 1. A stream of molten rock issuing from the crater of a volcano or from fissures in the earth.
| 1750 Phil. Trans. XLVII. x. 52 The wells..near the places where the lava's stopped, are sometimes found full. 1767 Hamilton ibid. LVIII. 6 Another lava forced its way out of the same place from whence came the lava last year. |
2. The fluid or semi-fluid matter flowing from a volcano.
| 1760 Ann. Reg., Chron. 86/1 On the 21st ult...all the neighbourhood of Mount Vesuvius was overflowed by a deluge of burning bitumen called lava. 1820 Keats Lamia i. 157 As the lava ravishes the mead. 1832 H. T. De la Beche Geol. Man. (ed. 2) 109 The lava burst out..at three different points, about eight or nine miles from each other. 1885 Times 27 Aug. 5 The phenomenon which these people understand by ‘aluvion’ is really the stream of lava. |
| fig. 1821 Shelley Lett. Prose Wks. 1880 IV. 197 We are surrounded here in Pisa by revolutionary volcanoes..the lava has not yet reached Tuscany. 1876 H. N. Humphreys Coin Coll. Man. xix. 247 The lava of Roman power overflowed its native crater. |
3. a. The substance that results from the cooling of the molten rock.
| 1750 Phil. Trans. XLVII. xxi. 150 This lava..is a very hard substance, like stone, of a slate colour. 1789 Mrs. Piozzi Journ. France II. 36 One of these towns is crushed..under loads of heavy lava. 1806 Gazetteer Scotl. (ed. 2) 306 The greater part of it is composed of lava, in which the different layers or currents are very evident. 1837 W. Irving Capt. Bonneville (1849) 243 Great masses of lava lay scattered about in every direction. 1882 Rep. to Ho. Repr. Prec. Met. U.S. 622 Volcanic breccia and volcanic conglomerates are likewise designated by the term ‘lava’. |
b. A kind of lava, a bed of lava.
| 1795 R. Kirwan Elem. Min. (ed. 2) I. 400 Any matter that has issued out of a volcano in a liquified state..is in general, styled a lava. 1809 Brydone Sicily vii. 71 They pierced through seven distinct lavas one under the other. 1872 Dana Corals ii. 154 The cavities of a lava or basalt become filled. 1882 Geikie Text-bk. Geol. iii. i. i. §1. 203 Lavas differ from each other in the extent to which they are impregnated with gases and vapours. |
4. attrib. and
Comb.:
a. simple attributive, as
lava-ash,
lava bed (also
fig.),
lava block,
lava boulder,
lava-column,
lava-cone,
lava-current,
lava field (also
fig.),
lava-lake,
lava-plain,
lava-rill,
lava-sea,
lava-stream,
lava-torrent;
lava-like adj.; also
lava-flag, (see
quot.);
lava flow, a mass of flowing or solidified lava;
lava-millstone, (see
quot.);
lava-streak U.S., a basaltic dyke;
lava ware (see
quot.).
b. instrumental, as
lava-capped,
lava-lit,
lava-paved adjs.| 1882 Rep. to Ho. Repr. Prec. Met. U.S. 634 The filling up..of the old river beds by *lava-ash. |
| 1891 Century Mag. Mar. 645 The general direction [of march] was towards the *lava beds of northern California. 1905 Westm. Gaz. 12 Aug. 13/1 She lived over a ‘lava-bed of raw primeval passions’. 1937 Discovery Mar. 83/1 This arid lava bed. |
| 1866 ‘Mark Twain’ Lett. from Hawaii (1967) 58 We climbed a hill a hundred and fifty feet high..as full of rough *lava blocks as it could stick. Ibid. 223 It had *lava boulders piled around its base. 1902 Athenæum 30 Aug. 287/1 Where bed on bed of mountain-pinks Above the lava-boulders blow. |
| 1882 Rep. to Ho. Repr. Prec. Met. U.S. 638 The bed⁓rock of almost every *lava-capped mountain shows the same peculiarity. |
| 1862 G. P. Scrope Volcanos 23 The *lava⁓column having seemingly sunk too far within the vent. |
| 1882 Geikie Text-bk. Geol. iii. i. i. §3. 246 A flat *lava-cone 13,760 feet above the sea. |
| 1830 Lyell Princ. Geol. I. 327 The *lava-current..may still be traced, by aid of the scoriæ on its surface. |
| 1866 ‘Mark Twain’ Lett. from Hawaii (1967) 222 We clambered over the surrounding *lava field, through masses of weeds. 1899 Geogr. Jrnl. May 50 The most extensive lava-field in the island. 1906 Daily Chron. 21 May 7/3 The smoking lava fields of discussion. 1957 G. E. Hutchinson Treat. Limnol. I. i. 16 The lakes of the Modoc lava field are frequently regarded as lying on tilted block faults. |
| 1811 Pinkerton Petral. II. 236 A..basalt fragment..called *lava flag. |
| 1888 J. Prestwich Geol. II. 91 Beds of contemporaneous *lava-flows. 1866 ‘Mark Twain’ Lett. from Hawaii (1967) 222 Gathering up a fresh lot of specimens, having..discarded those he dug out of the old lava flows. 1957 G. E. Hutchinson Treat. Limnol. I. i. 38 Not infrequently the surface of a newly formed lava flow may cool and produce a crust. 1974 Country Life 17 Jan. 66/1 The lava-flows on either side of the runway. |
| 1895 *Lava-lake [see blowing-cone]. 1902 Nature 4 Sept. 441/1 (heading) The lava-lake of Kilauea. Ibid. 441/2, I carefully observed the then existing lava-lake during six successive days. |
| 1802 Playfair Illustr. Hutton. Theory 274 Crystallized, sparry or *lava-like structure. |
| 1876 Geo. Eliot Dan. Der. IV. lxv. 294 The *lava-lit track of her troubled conscience. |
| 1858 Simmonds Dict. Trade, *Lava-millstones, hard and coarse basaltic millstones, obtained from quarries near Andernach on the Rhine. |
| 1837 W. Irving Capt. Bonneville III. 77 The immense *lava plain of San Gabriel. |
| 1869 Phillips Vesuv. iii. 83 Small *lava-rills among them. |
| 1871 W. Morris in Mackail Life (1899) I. 268 A low mound of soft grass, rising like an island from the much-riven *lava-sea. |
| 1872 R. B. Smyth Mining Statist. 47 ‘*Lava streaks’, or dykes, are found associated with all the main lines of reefs at Sandhurst. |
| 1833 Lyell Princ. Geol. III. 184 The branches..are formed simply of two *lava-streams. |
| 1878 Huxley Physiogr. 192 These *lava-torrents are often of great magnitude. |
| 1860 Ure's Dict. Arts (ed. 5) II. 641 *Lava-ware, a peculiar stoneware, manufactured and coloured to assume the semi-vitreous appearance of lava. |
c. similative (
quasi-adj.).
| 1818 Byron Ch. Har. iv. li, While thy lips are With lava kisses melting while they burn. 1878 Swinburne Poems & Ballads 2nd Ser. 182 All its lava-black Cones. |
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Add:
[4.] [a.] lava tube, a tubular cave occurring naturally in some solidified lava flows.
| 1927 H. S. Palmer Geol. Honolulu Artesian Syst. 29 Many lava flows develop hard crusts by the cooling and solidification of the upper surface. Later the supply of lava for the particular flow may cease and the liquid lava stream may drain out leaving a long tubular opening under the crust. *Lava tubes formed in this way would be as good as artificial pipes for carrying water. 1931 Bull. Geol. Soc. Amer. XLII. 310 Small stalactites of opal occur in a lava tube 20 miles northeast of Red Bluff, California. 1965 Oregon State Dept. Geol. & Mineral Industry Bull. lviii. 9 This large lava tube..is a mile long (1.6 km), and it can be easily entered where the roof has collapsed. 1979 United States 1980/81 (Penguin Travel Guides) 510 There's good diving in the Pine Trees area (lava-tube caves big enough to drive a Volkswagen through, [etc.]). 1993 K. S. Robinson Green Mars 439 She stepped into an observation gallery cut into the side of the lava tube. |
lava tunnel = *
lava tube above.
| 1905 Bull. U.S. Geol. Survey No. 252. 70 Access can be gained to a subterranean chamber of the ordinary type of *lava tunnels, formed by the outflow of molten lava from beneath the thick, rigid crust of a sheet of basalt. 1976 P. Francis Volcanoes iv. 143 Lava tunnels result from the rapid cooling of the surface and the side of a flow. 1991 H. A. Summerfield Global Geomorphol. xix. 485/2 The Hadley Rille itself is thought to be a massive collapsed lava tunnel, smaller versions of which are known from lava fields on Earth. |
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lava lamp n. orig. U.S. an ornamental electric lamp which consists of a transparent (
esp. conical or cylindrical) chamber containing a viscous liquid in which a brightly coloured substance is suspended, rising and sinking in irregular and constantly changing shapes as a result of the heat emitted from the bulb below.
| 1969 Science 16 May 853/1 The room was lighted by a red *lava lamp and one indirect red light, and contemporary rock music was played. 1985 Chicago Tribune (Nexis) 31 Mar. (Chicagoland section) 1 Like the hippies of the '60s, lava lamps were colorful and interesting, although no one was quite sure of their purpose. 1993 J. Saunders Absolutely Fabulous iv. 80 Edina You and your generation... What will you leave the world as your legacy?.. Saffron What did you ever leave? The lava lamp and the bean-bag? 2000 Daily News (Los Angeles) (Nexis) 23 Sept. Lava lamps..[were] designed in 1963 by a Belgian eccentric named Edward Craven Walker who called his invention the Astro Lamp. |
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lava light n. (a) poet. (now
rare), light emitted by molten lava;
(b) orig. U.S. = lava lamp n. at Additions
| 1832 S. L. Fairfield Last Night of Pompeii i. 45 Ghastly with *lava light, the molten clouds In cloven masses swirl before his path. 1892Tennyson Kapiolani in Wks. (1896) 889/2 Long as the lava-light Glares from the lava-lake. 1967 Chicago Seed May 14/3 Wallgreen's drugs is advertising Lava lights with full page ads. 1997 Fort Pierce News (Florida) (Nexis) 25 July a6 Taylor said tidal movements make the muck ‘boil up like that stuff in a lava light’. |
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Lava Lite n. orig. U.S. (a proprietary name for) a type of lava lamp.
| 1968 Official Gaz. (U.S. Patent Office) 30 Apr. 216/1 *Lava Lite... For ornamental electrical device in the form of a lighting unit or lamp. 1982 A. Maupin Further Tales of City 96 His tiny studio was blandly furnished, with occasional endearing lapses into kitsch (a Mike Mentzer poster, a Lava Lite). 1997 Chicago Tribune (Nexis) 28 Dec. (Tempo Northwest section) 1 Next stop is the wallful of Lava Lites that happily ooze red, orange, aqua and green globules. |