Definitions
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.
- noun chemistry, obsolete
Hydrocyanic acid .
from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.
- noun a solution of hydrogen cyanide in water; weak solutions are used in fumigating and in the synthesis of organic compounds
Etymologies
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition
[So called because it was first obtained from Prussian blue.]
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Examples
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chained_bear commented on the word prussic acid
"... Dr. Willcox conducted an initial series of experiments to rule out certain easy-to-detect poisons, such as arsenic, anitmony, and prussic acid.... Now he turned to the more complex and time-consuming task of determining whether the remains contained any poisons of the alkaloid variety, such as strychnine, cocaine, and atropine, a derivative of deadly nightshade."
—Erik Larson, Thunderstruck (New York: Crown Publishers, 2006), 351
More on Stas extraction method.
July 7, 2009