A.Word.A.Day --osmosis

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Mar 20, 2017

This week’s theme
Words from chemistry

This week’s words
osmosis
solvent
caustic
bromidic
miscible

A.Word.A.Day

with Anu Garg

In my high school I had courses in sciences, mathematics, arts, and more. Looking back I realize that we can learn a lot if we look beyond the literal.

In physics, I learned what happens when light goes through lenses, concave and convex. It’s the same light but it appears different depending on what lens we have.

In chemistry, I learned what happens when you drop a piece of sodium in water (that experiment wasn’t an official part of the curriculum). Sodium changes. Water changes too. Likewise, when two people meet they should have changed as a result of that meeting.

This week we’ll see five words that have meanings specific to chemistry as well as more general meanings.

osmosis

PRONUNCIATION:

(oz-MOH-sis, os-)

MEANING:

noun:	1. A gradual, unconscious assimilation of information, ideas, etc.
	2. Movement of a solvent through a semipermeable membrane from a lower solute concentration to higher concentration, thus equalizing concentrations on both sides.

ETYMOLOGY:

From Greek osmos (a push). Earliest documented use: 1863.

USAGE:

“The golem knew degrees of the human emotion, picking them up from osmosis.”
William W. Johnstone; The Devil’s Heart; Zebra; 1984.

See more usage examples of osmosis in Vocabulary.com’s dictionary.

A THOUGHT FOR TODAY:

What didn't you do to bury me / But you forgot that I was a seed. -Dinos Christianopoulos, poet (b. 20 Mar 1931)

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