effloresce
/ˌɛfləˈɹɛs/ verb
Forms effloresces efflorescing effloresced
- verb (intransitive, obsolete except figuratively) To burst into bloom; to flower.
- verb (intransitive, figuratively) Of something hidden: to come forth, to emerge; also, to reach full glory or power.
- verb Of a substance: to change from being crystalline to powdery by losing water of crystallization.
- verb Of a salt: to seep through some material (bricks, concrete, earth, rock, etc.) in a dissolved state, and then crystallize on a surface in a powdery form.
- verb Of the surface of a material: to become covered with a powdery salt (as described in sense 3.2).
Synonyms
Etymology
From Latin efflōrēscere, present active infinitive of efflōrēscō (“to bloom, blossom; to flourish”) + -ere (suffix forming infinitives). Efflōrēscō is derived from ef- (variant of ex- (prefix meaning ‘away; out’)) + flōrēscō (“to blossom, flower; to begin to flourish or prosper”) (from flōreō (“to bloom, blossom, flower; to flourish, prosper”) (from flōs (“blossom, flower”) (ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *bʰleh₃- (“bloom, flower”)) + -scō (suffix forming verbs having the sense of beginning something)). By surface analysis, ef- + Latin flor- + -esce.
Webster’s 1913
- verb To blossom forth. Carlyle.
- verb To change on the surface, or throughout, to a whitish, mealy, or crystalline powder, from a gradual decomposition, esp. from the loss of water, on simple exposure to the air; as, Glauber's salts, and many others, effloresce.
Etymology [L. efflorescere to bloom, blossom; ex + florescere to begin to blossom, incho., fr. florere to blossom, fr. flos a flower. See Flower.]
Sources: Wiktionary · WordNet 3.0 · Webster’s 1913 — from the Wiktionary entry “effloresce”, CC BY-SA 4.0. Details