phlogiston

Valid in Scrabble

Scrabble points: 16
Words With Friends: 19
Letters: 10

Pronunciation

/flə(ʊ)ˈd͡ʒɪstɒn/

See all 2 pronunciations

/flə(ʊ)ˈd͡ʒɪstɒn/ · /flə(ʊ)ˈd͡ʒɪstən/

Definition of phlogiston

1 sense · 1 part of speech · etymology included

noun

(historical, uncountable, usually)The hypothetical fiery principle formerly assumed to be a necessary constituent of combustible bodies and to be given up by them in burning.

“[…] air was universally reputed to be a simple or elementary body. It was liable, according to the phlogistians, to vitiation, by the addition to it of phlogiston[…] being more or less phlogisticated, according to the degree of its power to support respiration and combustion.”
“Stahl argued that phlogiston could explain combustion, a central concern of eighteenth-century chemistry.”

Definitions from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA.

Etymology

From New Latin phlogiston, coined by Georg Ernst Stahl in 1702, from Ancient Greek φλογιστόν (phlogistón), neuter of φλογιστός (phlogistós, “burnt up, inflammable”), from φλογίζω (phlogízō, “to set fire to”), from φλόξ (phlóx, “flame”).