fixed air

From Wiktionary, the free dictionary
Jump to navigation Jump to search

English[edit]

Etymology[edit]

Coined by Scottish chemist Joseph Black in 1756 because it can be absorbed, or fixed, by strong bases.

Noun[edit]

fixed air (uncountable)

  1. (chemistry, now historical) Carbon dioxide; carbonic acid.
    • 1790, Edmund Burke, Reflections on the Revolution in France, Oxford, published 2009, page 8:
      The wild gas, the fixed air is plainly broke loose: but we ought to suspend our judgement until […] we see something deeper than the agitation of a troubled and disturbed surface.
    • 1997, Roy Porter, The Greatest Benefit to Mankind, Folio Society, published 2016, page 246:
      Lavoisier then elucidated the exchange of gases in the lungs: the air inhaled was converted into Black's fixed air, whereas the nitrogen (‘azote’) remained unchanged.

References[edit]

Retrieved from "https://en.wiktionary.org/w/index.php?title=fixed_air&oldid=75893689"