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  1. aqua regia love

Definitions

American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition

  1. n. A corrosive, fuming, volatile mixture of hydrochloric and nitric acids, used for testing metals and dissolving platinum and gold. Also called nitrohydrochloric acid.

Wiktionary

  1. n. obsolete, inorganic chemistry A mixture of three parts concentrated hydrochloric acid to one part concentrated nitric acid.

GNU Webster's 1913

  1. n. (Chem.) a very corrosive fuming yellow liquid consisting of nitric and hydrochloric acids. It has the power of dissolving gold, the “royal” metal.

WordNet 3.0

  1. n. a yellow fuming corrosive mixture of nitric and hydrochloric acid that dissolves metals (including gold)

Etymologies

  1. Latin aqua regia, royal water, so named because it is one of the few solvents capable of dissolving noble metals. (Wiktionary)
  2. New Latin aqua rēgia : Latin aqua, water + Latin rēgia, feminine of rēgius, royal (because it dissolves gold, the "royal metal”). (American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition)

Examples

  • “For aqua regia dissolves gold but not silver; aqua fortis, on the contrary, dissolves silver, but not gold; neither dissolves glass, and so on with others.”

    The New Organon

  • “For gold leaf dissolved by aqua regia gives no heat to the touch; no more does lead dissolved in aqua fortis; neither again does quicksilver”

    The New Organon

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synonyms (2)

Words with the same meaning

  1. nitro-hydrochloric acid
  1. aqua regis

hypernyms (1)

Words that are more generic or abstract

  1. acid

reverse dictionary (4)

Words that contain this word in their definition

  1. nitrohydrochloric acid
  1. gold
  1. atomic number 79
  1. au

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Lists

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Comments

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  • kad Such a nice sounding phrase for what is actually extremely caustic stuff. Dec 13, 2007

  • misterpolly I didn't know this one but was struck by its similarity to the Italian word "acquaragia" which is a solvent (basically turpentine) capable of dissolving paints and varnishes. The -ragia here comes from the Greek -rhagia meaning to break (cf. haemorrhage) Dec 13, 2007

  • kewpid A mixture of concentrated hydrochloric and nitric acid that can dissolve the royal metals gold and platinum, hence "royal water". Nov 3, 2007

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‘aqua regia’ has been looked up 1658 times, added to 10 lists, commented on 3 times, and is not a valid Scrabble word.