absorbent

Etymology

From Latin absorbēns, present active participle of absorbeō (“absorb”).

Pronunciation

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /əbˈsɔː.bn̩t/, /əbˈzɔː.bn̩t/
• (US) IPA^(key): /æbˈsɔɹ.bn̩t/, /æbˈzɔɹ.bn̩t/, /əbˈsɔɹ.bn̩t/, /əbˈzɔɹ.bn̩t/

• Audio (US):

  (file)

Adjective

absorbent (comparative more absorbent, superlative most absorbent)

1. Having the ability or tendency to absorb; able to soak up liquid easily; absorptive. [First attested in the early 18^th century.]^[1]

   Those paper towels were amazingly absorbent. That was quite a spill.

Noun

absorbent (plural absorbents)

1. Anything which absorbs. [First attested in the early 18^th century.]^[1]
   • 1839, Charles Darwin, The Voyage of the Beagle, page 225, Forgotten Books:

     In the Southern Ocean the winter is not so excessively cold, but the summer is far less hot, for the clouded sky seldom allows the sun to warm the ocean, itself a bad absorbent of heat: and hence the mean temperature of the year […] is low.

2. (physiology, pluralized, now rare) The vessels by which the processes of absorption are carried on, as the lymphatics in animals, the extremities of the roots in plants. [First attested in the mid 18^th century.]^[1]
3. (medicine) Any substance which absorbs and neutralizes acid fluid in the stomach and bowels, as magnesia, chalk, etc.; also a substance, e.g., iodine, which acts on the absorbent vessels so as to reduce enlarged and indurated parts.
4. (physical chemistry) A liquid used in the process of separating gases or volatile liquids, in oil refining.

References

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): (Central) [əp.surˈben]
• IPA^(key): (Balearic) [əp.sorˈbent]
• IPA^(key): (Valencia) [ap.soɾˈbent]

Adjective

absorbent m or f (masculine and feminine plural absorbents)

1. absorbent

Noun

absorbent m (plural absorbents)

1. absorbent

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ap.sɔʁ.bɑ̃/

• Audio:

  (file)

Verb

absorbent

1. third-person plural present indicative/subjunctive of absorber

Pronunciation

• (Classical Latin) IPA^(key): /abˈsor.bent/, [äpˈs̠ɔrbɛn̪t̪]
• (modern Italianate Ecclesiastical) IPA^(key): /abˈsor.bent/, [äbˈsɔrben̪t̪]

Verb

absorbent

1. third-person plural present active indicative of absorbeō

Etymology

From English absorbent, from Latin absorbēns (“swallowing, absorbing”), present active participle of absorbeō (“absorb”), from both ab- (“from, away from, off”), from ab (“from, away from, on, in”), from Proto-Italic *ab, from Proto-Indo-European *h₂epó (“off, away”), + and from sorbeō (“I suck in, drink up”), from Proto-Italic *sorβeō (“to suck in”), from Proto-Indo-European *srobʰéyeti (“to be sipping, sucking”), from *srebʰ- (“to sip, gulp, suck (in)”) and *-éyeti, from *-yeti (creates transitive imperfective verbs).

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /absɔrˈbɛnt/, /apsɔrˈbɛnt/

• Audio:

  (file)

• Rhymes: -ɛnt
• Hyphenation: ab‧sor‧bent

Noun

absorbent m (definite singular absorbenten, indefinite plural absorbenter, definite plural absorbentene)

1. an absorbent or absorber (something which absorbs)
   • 1971, Teknisk Ukeblad:

     absorbenter eller reflektorer på vegger eller i tak

     absorbents or reflectors on walls or ceilings

References

• “absorbent” in The Bokmål Dictionary.
• “absorbent” in Det Norske Akademis ordbok (NAOB).
• “absorbent” in Store norske leksikon

Etymology

Borrowed from English absorbent,^[1] from Latin absorbēns.^[2] First attested in 1925.^[3]

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /apˈsɔr.bɛnt/

• Audio:

  (file)

• Rhymes: -ɔrbɛnt
• Syllabification: ab‧sor‧bent

Noun

absorbent m inan

1. (chemistry) absorbent, absorber (anything which absorbs)

   Synonyms: absorber, pochłaniacz

References

Further reading

• absorbent in Wielki słownik języka polskiego, Instytut Języka Polskiego PAN
• absorbent in Polish dictionaries at PWN
• absorbent in Narodowy Fotokorpus Języka Polskiego