phosphorescent

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Definitions (5)

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  1. Shining with a faint light or luminosity like that of phosphorus; luminous without sensible heat. Various animals are phosphorescent; as, among infusorians, the noctilucas (see cut under Noctiluca); among polyps, certain sea-pens (Pennatula phosphorea, for example); among insects, the glow-worm and other beetles of the family Lampyridæ (see cuts under firefly, Lampyris, and lightning-bug), and many bugs of the family Fulgoridæ. (see cut under lantern-fly); among ascidians, the pyrosomes or firebodies; and some fishes. A number of mineral substances exhibit a similar property after having been exposed to a bright light, though from a different cause, as calcium chlorid, anhydrous calcium nitrate, the sulphids of barium, strontium, calcium (luminous paint), the diamond, some varieties of fluor-spar. apatite, borax, and many other substances. Some mineral bodies become phosphorescent when strongly heated, as a piece of lime See phosphorescence.
  2. Phosphorescent dial, paint, photograph etc. See the nouns.
  3. A substance having the property of phosphorescence, or luminosity without heat. The additions used by us as the third constituent are colourless salts, and all of them fusible at the temperature at which the phosphorescents are prepared. Philosophical Mag., 5th ser., XXVIII. 428.

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Examples

  • What is the starlight for, save to call some one's attention to, or the phosphorescent sheen except to be pointed out and enjoyed by two? —  Little Journeys to the Homes of the Great
  • The scene was shortly a festival of lights with stars in the sky and the water brilliantly phosphorescent, so that the oar seemed to drip with fire. —  Philip Gilbert Hamerton
  • Perhaps the majority of them are phosphorescent, sometimes shining by their own light, sometimes borrowing a glory from innumerable phosphorescent bacteria with which they are infested. —  Thomas Henry Huxley A Sketch Of His Life And Work
  • There was also an unseen creature that spun an intensely phosphorescent, bright pink web. —  Flinx In Flux
  • Instead, I drove past her house with that curious, bent-kneed walk of mine, — and I walked and walked, not heeding the cold, till the ocean shouldered, phosphorescent, in the enormous night toward me. —  Tramping on Life
 

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Etymologies (1)

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  1. = French phosphorescent = Spanish fosjorescente = Portuguese phosphorescente = Italian fosforescente; as phosphor + -escent. Cf. phosphoresce.
 

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