absorbent
nounEtymology
Etymology tree Proto-Indo-European *h₂ep Proto-Indo-European *-o Proto-Indo-European *h₂epó Proto-Italic *ap Latin abder. Latin ab- Proto-Indo-European *srebʰ- Proto-Indo-European *-yeti Proto-Indo-European *-éyeti Proto-Indo-European *srobʰéyeti Proto-Italic *sorβeō Latin sorbeō Latin absorbeō Proto-Indo-European *-onts Latin -ns Latin absorbēnsder. English absorbent From Latin absorbēns, present active participle of absorbeō (“absorb”).
Anything which absorbs.
- In the Southern Ocean the winter is not so excessively cold, but the summer is far less hot, for the clouded sky seldom allows the sun to warm the ocean, itself a bad absorbent of heat: and hence the mean temperature of the year […] is low.1839, Charles Darwin, The Voyage of the Beagle, page 225, Forgotten Books:
Medicine, Physiology, Sciences Archaic The vessels by which the processes of absorption are carried on, as the lymphatics in animals, the extremities of the roots in plants.
Medicine, Sciences Any substance which absorbs and neutralizes acid fluid in the stomach and bowels, as magnesia, chalk, etc.; also a substance, e.g., iodine, which acts on the absorbent vessels so as to reduce enlarged and indurated parts.