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alkali|ˈælkəlɪ|
Forms: 4–7 alcaly, -ie, alkaly, 8 alcali, 8–9 alkali. Pl. alkalis, sometimes -ies.
[a. Fr. alcali, ad. (ultimately) Arab. al-qalīy, the ‘calcined ashes’ of the plants Salsola and Salicornia, f. qalay to fry, roast in a pan; hence transferred to the plants themselves so employed.]
1. orig. A saline substance obtained by lixiviating the calcined ashes of marine plants; soda-ash.
c1386Chaucer Can. Yeom. Prol. & T. 257 Salt tartre, alcaly [v.r. alkaly, alcaly, alcalie], and salt preparat, And combust matieres, and coagulat. 1471Ripley Comp. Alch. in Ashm. 1652 v. 190 Sal Alkaly, sal Alembroke, sal Attinckarr. 1578Lyte Dodoens 116 The axsen or asshes whiche are made of burnt Kali, is called in Latin of the Alcumistes and Glassemakers Alumen Catinum, but the Salte which is made of the same Axsen, is called Sal Alkali. 1610B. Jonson Alchem. i. iii. (1616) 616 You shall deale much, with mineralls..I know, you have Arsnike, Vitriol, Sal-tartre, Argaile, Alkaly. 1712tr. Pomet's Hist. Drugs I. 102 They make of this Salt—a white Salt call'd Salt of Kali or Alkali.
2. Bot. The plant Saltwort (Salsola Kali); from the ashes of which (or of the allied Salsola Soda) the original Alkali was derived.
1578Lyte Dodoens 115 It [Salsola Kali] is the right Kali or Alkali of the Arabians: some call it in English Salte⁓worte; we may also call it Kali or prickled Kali. 1753Hanway Trav. (1762) I. iv. xiv. 250 We found it to be..the small sort of kali (or alkali, glass-wort: the ash of this is used in making glass and soap). 1861E. A. Beaufort Egypt. Sepul. I. xv. 337 The ‘hashish el kali’ which covered the ground..the plant from the ashes of which they make potash for soap.
3. a. Any substance possessing the characteristics of soda, i.e. a caustic or acrid taste, the power of forming a soap with oil, and of effervescing with or neutralizing acids.
In early chemistry alkali was supposed to be a specific substance, which existed, fixed (in soda, potash), volatile (in ammonia). Duhamel (1736) showed that there were distinct alkalis, and these were distinguished as mineral alkali (soda), vegetable alkali (potash), animal alkali (ammonia).
1612Woodall Surg. Mate Wks. 1653, 259 Paracelsus termeth every vegetable Salt Alkaly. 1669Phil. Trans. IV. 1055 Acids and Alcaly's mutually operate upon one another to a satiety. 1657G. Starkey Helmont's Vind. 298 Alcalyes are the fixt Salts of combustible Concretes, fixed by the activity of the fire, which were (before burning) volatile. 1682Grew Anat. Pl. Lect. ii. i. §8. 240 The predominant Salt in most Minerals, and parts of Animals, is an Alkaly: in the former, usually a fixed; in the latter, a volatile Alkaly. 1685Boyle Min. Waters 85 Strong Spirit of Urine, and other volatile Alcaly's. 1732Arbuthnot Rules Diet i. 246 Mulberries pectoral, corrective of the bilious Alkali. 1748Hartley Observ. Man i. i. §1. ⁋5 The effervescence which attends the Mixture of Acids and Alcali's. 1756C. Lucas Ess. Waters I. 9 Native or Mineral alcali is the basis of common salt. 1788Austin in Phil. Trans. LXXVIII. 381 A very pungent smell of volatile alkali is immediately perceived. 1822J. Imison Sc. & Art II. 4 If some oil and some alkali be put together they will unite and form soap. 1825Macaulay Ess., Milton I. 7 The conflicting ingredients, like an acid and an alkali mixed.
b. Native alkali (i.e. various salts) existing in excess in the soil of certain areas in the Western States; hence, a region abounding in alkali. U.S.
1848E. Bryant California viii. 124, I found the liquid bitter with salt and alkali. 1869S. Bowles Our New West xiv. 278 In looking out..on the starry heavens,..one almost forgets alkali. 1872‘Mark Twain’ Sketches 119 That awful five days' journey, through alkali, sagebrush, peril of body. 1904S. E. White Blazed Trail Stories x. 181 They had ridden solitary over the limitless alkali of the Arizona plains.
attrib.1848W. Clayton Latter-Day Saints' Emigr. Guide i, Emigrants have lost many of their teams in the neighbourhood of the Alkali lakes. 1869S. Bowles Our New West xiv. 275 The alkali dust, dry with a season's sun,..was thick and constant. Ibid. 276 Bare alkali plains stretch out..for miles. 1871Schele de Vere Americanisms 177 The Alkali Flats are now crossed by the Pacific Railroad. 1878J. H. Beadle Western Wilds xxiv. 388, I am convinced there is little to see but..alkali flats and sand-hills. 1886Boston (Mass.) Herald 16 July, It is only an ‘alkali sink’—a natural well, filled with a paste as yielding as water.
4. fig.
1702Eng. Theophr. 141 The church of England generally preaches alcali's, the Presbyterians acids.
5. Comm. Any form in which the substances above mentioned are used in commerce or the arts, or manufactured from other substances; once given specially to an impure soda, now applied both to caustic soda and caustic potash, and other alkaline products.
1822J. Imison Sc. & Art II. 168 The alcali is one of the chief articles of expense used in bleaching. 1876Ure Dict. Arts I. 71 Of alkali manufactured in the United Kingdom the following quantities were exported. Ibid. III. 861 Before the passing of the Alkali Act, or at least before the introduction of the Alkali Bill into Parliament.
6. Mod. Chem. A series of the compounds called bases, with well-marked characters, analogous to, and including soda, potash, and ammonia; they are highly soluble in water, producing caustic or corrosive solutions, which neutralize strong acids, turn vegetable yellows to brown, reds to blue, and purples to green; in the decomposition of a compound they are relatively electro-positive.
‘In its most restricted, but most usual sense, it is applied to four substances only: hydrate of potassium (potash), hydrate of sodium (soda), hydrate of lithium (lithia), and hydrate of ammonium (which may be supposed to exist in the aqueous solution of ammonia). In a more general sense it is applied to the hydrates of the so-called alkaline earths (baryta, strontia, and lime), and to a large number of organic substances both natural and artificial, [called] alkaloids and ammonium-bases. The first four bodies are sometimes spoken of as alkalis proper, when it is wished specially to distinguish them from the other bases.’ Watts Dict. Chem. Hence, fixed alkali or mineral alkalis, the hydrates of the metals above-named; vegetable alkalis, the alkaloids; organic alkalis, all the organic bases containing nitrogen, whether of vegetable or animal origin.
1813Sir H. Davy Agric. Chem. 20 The fixed alkalies which were formerly regarded as elementary bodies, it has been my good fortune to decompose. 1863Watts Dict. Chem. (1879) 117 The relations of the alkalis to other substances lead to the representation of them as hydrates, or as water in which half the hydrogen is replaced by a metal or compound radicle. The earliest addition made..to the old list of alkalis was morphia..This was the first organic alkali, or alkaloid, which became known. 1875Ure Dict. Arts I. 71 Modern chemists regard all organic alkalis as derived from the type ammonia or oxide of ammonium.
7. Comb. alkali act (see quot.); alkali-albumen, -inate, a precipitate thrown down from an albuminous fluid treated with dilute alkali, and neutralized by dilute acid; alkali-cellulose, a compound of cellulose and an alkali; alkali-metal = alkaline metal; alkali-waste, a by-product obtained in the manufacture of soda ash, consisting of sulphide of calcium; alkali-work, a manufactory where the alkali of commerce is prepared, or where carbonate of soda is prepared from common salt.
1875Ure Dict. Arts III. 861 The Alkali Act of July 28, 1863, is ‘An Act for the more effectual condensation of Muriatic Acid in Alkali works.’ An alkali-work is defined as ‘every work for the manufacture of alkali, sulphate of soda, or sulphate of potash, in which muriatic acid is evolved.’ 1879Syd. Soc. Lex. s.v., Alkali-albumen is not distinguishable from Casein, which is also termed the natural alkali-albumen. 1878Kingzett Anim. Chem. 69 The organic matter of pancreatic juice contains soluble albumin and alkali-albuminate. 1901Cross & Bevan Res. on Cellulose 31 Hydrolytic changes should occur in the cellulose molecule when kept for prolonged periods as alkali-cellulose. |