Viscoid

Pronunciation

• IPA: en, /?v?s.k??d/
• IPA: en, /?v?s.ko?d/
• Rhymes: -en, -?sk??d

Origin

; evidently independently coined several times by several scientists in the late nineteenth through early twentieth centuries.

Full definition of viscoid

Adjective

1. (dated) Made of (composed of) viscoid (which is a powered amorphous form of cellulose).
2. (dated) Made from (derived from) viscose (which is a liquid made from cellulose).
3. (dated, geology, chiefly of glacier flow)
• 1902 , Elements of Geology: A Text-book for Colleges and for the General Reader Chapter Chapter II: Aqueous agencies , Laws of Glacier-Motion.—The term differential motion is a condensed expression for all the laws of glacier-motion. It asserts that the different parts of a glacier do not move together as a solid, but move among themselves in the manner of a fluid. A glacier moves like a fluid, though a very stiff, viscous fluid; its motion may therefore be rightly called viscoid. We will mention some of the most important laws of fluid-motion, and show that glaciers conform to them ...
4. (catachresis) Misconstruction of en.
• 2014 , Gastrointestinal Imaging: The Requisites , Cystic fibrosis has a number of GI complications, mostly resulting from the viscous mucoid inspissated material that occupies the small and large bowel. These include meconium ileus, intussusception, and appendicitis. The colon can also become occupied by the viscoid material, leading to meconium ileus equivalent syndrome, which resembles meconium ileus and predominantly affects the cecum and ascending colon.

Noun

1. (dated) A powdered amorphous form of cellulose.
• 1896-04-17 , Increase in temperature of cellulose on absorption of atmospheric moisture , One of us observed that anhydrous cellulose rose in temperature whilst taking up moisture from the atmosphere, and that this rise of temperature appeared to have some relation to the increase in weight (Nature, xlix., 457; and Chemical News, Ixxi., 1). The above experiments were done with cotton-wool alone. We have carefully repeated these experiments, but using, in addition to cotton-wool (whose fibres were 20–30 m.m. in length), cotton mechanically disintegrated by a dry process (fibres reduced to 1–1·5 m.m.), and a finely-powdered amorphous form of cellulose, which we shall refer to as "viscoid." Viscoid is obtained by treating cotton with strong alkali and carbon disulphide, dissolving the cellulose thiocarbonate obtained in water, and regenerating the cellulose as a gelatinous mass by heat. ... One thing is apparent from these experiments, and that is that the percentage of moisture taken up decreases with the fineness of the cellulose. This is true with cellulose in the fibrous form, such as cotton, as well as with viscoids. The fact that large masses of viscoid have a much higher hygroscopic moisture than viscoid alter pulverising lends support to this view. It is also noticeable that, ceteris paribus, the curve becomes more uniform with the fineness of the particles of the cellulose. Thus, we notice that the cotton-wool curves are somewhat irregular, but that the same after disintegration are more regular. The coarse powdered viscoid is also much less regular than the fine powdered. In order to determine the rise in temperature, the cellulose in each, after drying in the water-bath and allowing to cool to the temperature of the atmosphere in a weighing tube, was placed round the bulb of a sensitive thermometer; and a similar thermometer placed at a distance of about four inches was used to indicate the temperature of the atmosphere. The cotton-wool was merely tied on to the bulb of the thermometer, but the pulverised cotton and viscoid were contained in a cage of thin wire gauze, so as to allow free access of the air.

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