phosphoric

adj

Etymology: Etymology tree English phosphor Proto-Indo-European *-ikos Proto-Italic *-ikos Latin -icuslbor. Old French -iquebor. Middle English -ik English -ic English phosphoric From phosphor + -ic.

1. Pertaining to the element phosphorus; containing phosphorus, especially in its higher valency (5).

   “An old man to whom a few drops of phosphoric ether had been administered experienced repeated and imperious venereal wants.”

2. Pertaining to a phosphor; phosphorescent.

   “I refer to the light in the tail of a glow-worm […] first, that it is phosphoric; secondly, that its use is to attract the male insect.”

   “[T]he gulf beneath blended in the darkness, till but one atmosphere seemed both above and below, sometimes illumined by flashes of phosphoric light—meteors that might have suited sea or sky, and, broken by two or three ridges of foam, seen in obscurity, like lines of snow.”