liquid

Etymology

From Middle English liquide, from Old French liquide, from Latin liquidus (“fluid, liquid, moist”), from liqueō (“to be liquid, be fluid”). Doublet of liquidus. As a term for a consonant, it comes from Latin liquida (cōnsōnāns), a calque of Ancient Greek ὑγρὸν (σύμφωνον) (hugròn (súmphōnon), “liquid consonant”).

Pronunciation

• enPR: lĭk'wĭd, IPA^(key): /ˈlɪkwɪd/

• Audio (US):

  (file)

• Hyphenation: liq‧uid
• Rhymes: -ɪkwɪd

Noun

liquid (countable and uncountable, plural liquids)

2. (physical chemistry) A substance that is flowing, and keeping no shape, such as water; a substance of which the molecules, while not tending to separate from one another like those of a gas, readily change their relative position, and which therefore retains no definite shape, except that determined by the containing receptacle; an inelastic fluid.

   Hyponyms: ideal liquid, non-ideal liquid

   Coordinate terms: solid, gas

   A liquid can freeze to become a solid or evaporate into a gas.

   • 2013 August 3, “Yesterday’s fuel”, in The Economist, volume 408, number 8847:

     The dawn of the oil age was fairly recent. Although the stuff was used to waterproof boats in the Middle East 6,000 years ago, extracting it in earnest began only in 1859 after an oil strike in Pennsylvania. […] It was used to make kerosene, the main fuel for artificial lighting after overfishing led to a shortage of whale blubber. Other liquids produced in the refining process, too unstable or smoky for lamplight, were burned or dumped.

3. (phonetics) Any of a class of consonant sounds that includes l and r.

   Hypernyms: approximant, consonant

   Coordinate term: glide

   • 1996, Adrian Room, An Alphabetical Guide to the Language of Name Studies, page 41:

     Many female forenames are regarded as euphonyms. What is and is not euphonious is necessarily subjective, but it could be suggested that names containing labials (b, m), sibilants (s, sh) and liquids (l, r) are more likely to be euphonyms than those that do not.

   • 1999, Ingo Plag, Morphological Productivity, page 86:

     […] -able does not attach to verbs ending in a postconsonantal liquid […]

Adjective

liquid (comparative more liquid, superlative most liquid)

1. (physical chemistry) Flowing freely like water; fluid; not solid and not gaseous; composed of particles that move freely among each other on the slightest pressure.

   liquid nitrogen

2. (finance, of an asset) Easily sold or disposed of without losing value.
3. (finance, of a market) Having sufficient trading activity to make buying or selling easy.
4. Flowing or sounding smoothly or without abrupt transitions or harsh tones.

   a liquid melody

5. (phonology) Belonging to a class of consonants comprised of the laterals and the rhotics, which in many languages behave similarly.

   /l/ and /r/ are liquid consonants.

6. Fluid and transparent.

   the liquid air

Further reading

• “liquid”, in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, Springfield, Mass.: G. & C. Merriam, 1913, →OCLC.
• William Dwight Whitney, Benjamin E[li] Smith, editors (1911), “liquid”, in The Century Dictionary […], New York, N.Y.: The Century Co., →OCLC.
• liquid on Wikipedia.Wikipedia

Adjective

liquid

1. Alternative form of liquide

Etymology

From Latin liquidus.

Pronunciation

• Audio:

  (file)

Adjective

liquid m (feminine singular liquida, masculine plural liquids, feminine plural liquidas)

1. liquid
   • 2019 January 18, “La planeta dels tres pòls magnetics”, in Jornalet‎:

     Son dins una partida de la planeta liquida, facha de fèrre e niquèl.

     (please add an English translation of this quotation)

Noun

liquid m (plural liquids)

1. liquid

Further reading

• Joan de Cantalausa (2006) Diccionari general occitan a partir dels parlars lengadocians‎, 2 edition, →ISBN, page 607.