"viscous" - Word of the Day from the OED

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viscous, a.

SECOND EDITION 1989

(vsks)  Forms: 5-7 viscouse, 6 vyscous, 6- viscous; 6 vys-, viscus. [a. AF. viscous (Gower), or ad. L. viscsus (cf. VISCOSE a.), f. viscum (also viscus) mistletoe, birdlime made from mistletoe-berries. Cf. F. visqueux, It., Sp., Pg. viscoso.] 

    1. a. Of substances: Having a glutinous or gluey character. Cf. VISCID a. 1.

c1400 Lanfranc's Cirurg. 33 Senewis bi kynde ben neische & viscouse. 1533 ELYOT Cast. Helthe (1541) 8b, Flewme,..thycke, viscouse lyke byrde lyme and heuy. 1542 BOORDE Dyetary xii. (1870) 264 The whyte of an egge is viscus and colde. 1547 Brev. Health §207 By eatynge of euyl & vyscus meates & euyl drinkes. 1578 LYTE Dodoens 721 The fruit is..of a viscus or clammie substance. 1605 TIMME Quersit. I. x. 39 He cast up from his stomacke all impurity, tough and viscous. 1664 POWER Exp. Philos. I. 52 A Nitt is an Egge glewed by some viscous matter to the sides of the hair it sticks to. 1686 GOAD Celest. Bodies I. xviii. 120 Gossamere..is nothing else but the viscous misty vapour, furled up by the warm alteration of the Air. 1718 J. CHAMBERLAYNE Relig. Philos. I. ix. §3 A viscous Liquor like Turpentine. 1756 C. LUCAS Ess. Waters I. 37 Some sustain, that the Chaos..was a mass of a certain kind of viscous or mucous water. 1822 J. IMISON Sci. & Art I. 107 Water and Mercury may be considered as among the most perfect fluids. Others as oil &c. are viscous or imperfect fluids. 1859 W. H. GREGORY Egypt II. 72 The rocky walls were black and sticky, and seemed to sweat a thick, fatty, viscous liquor. 1897 Allbutt's Syst. Med. II. 800 The blood drawn during life is dark and viscous.

transf. 1899 Allbutt's Syst. Med VI. 158 Contact with the abnormal surface sets up an immediate viscous metamorphosis of the platelets.

    b. Physics. Imperfectly fluid; intermediate between solid and fluid; adhesively soft. Also used with abstract ns. (as state, etc.).

(a) 1847 WHEWELL Hist. Induct. Sci. (ed. 2) XVIII. III. 683 The ice of a glacier is..supposed to be a plastic or viscous mass. 1863 BARING-GOULD Iceland 194 The edges of the molten [lava] stream cooling and resisting the tension of the still viscous centre. 1872 C. KING Mountain. Sierra Nev. xii. 261 The water converted into steam, blew up the viscous rock in such forms as we find. 1880 Times 1 Dec. 10 His researches on tidal retardation from the action of a satellite on a viscous planet.

(b) 1830 HERSCHEL Study Nat. Phil. 223 The solid, liquid, and aëriform state, to which, perhaps, ought to be added the viscous, as a state intermediate between that of solidity and fluidity. 1853 KANE Grinnell Exp. viii. (1856) 57 Forbes' beautifully simple views of a viscous movement. 1860 TYNDALL Glac. II. xvi. 311 The inquiry as to what Professor Forbes really meant when he propounded the viscous theory. 1863 Heat ii. §34. (1870) 36 The viscous character of the space between the poles instantly disappears.

    c. viscous flow, laminar flow (see LAMINAR a. 2a).

1930 [see TURBULENT a. 2c]. 1973 FOX & MCDONALD Introd. Fluid Mech. viii. 311 (caption) Details of viscous flow around an airfoil. 1979 [see STREAMLINE n. 1b].

    2. fig. Adhesive, sticky.

1605 BACON Adv. Learn. II. xxiii. §33. 100 These graue solemne wittes..haue more dignity then flicity: But in some it is nature to bee somewhat viscouse and inwrapped, and not easie to turne. 1660 in Harl. Misc. (1809) I. 276 Our magistracy and judicatures..have..been intrusted in such viscous and birdlimed fingers.

    3. Bot. Of leaves: = VISCID a. 2.

1712 tr. Pomet's Hist. Drugs I. 37 Leaves, like those of Linseed, but..more viscous. 1857 A. GRAY First Less. Bot. Gloss., Viscous,..having a glutinous surface.

    Hence viscously adv.

1878 ABNEY Photogr. 55 Note if the collodion flows freely, viscously, or lumpily.

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