alkali

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle English alkaly,^[2][3] borrowed from Medieval Latin alkali, also alcali,^{[4][5][6][7][8]} from Arabic اَلْقِلْي (al-qily, “the ashes (of saltwort), soda ash, potash”),^[1][4][9] which is the Arabic definite article with the word for those ashes,^[4][9][10] from قَلَى (qalā, “to fry, roast”).^[1][4][9][8] The OED explains the a of the English word from colloquial Arabic forms with that vowel in place of the literary i.^[4] In Medieval Latin it is recorded from the 13th century in British sources, earliest in the phrase for alkali salt with sal,^[4] and Klein says it first appears in the writings of Albertus Magnus.^[11] Dictionary.com, Partridge, Weekley, Klein and Wiktionary take the English word through French alcali,^{[2][12][13][11][1]} but the OED records the French word only once in the mid 13th century and then from the 16th, and only compares it.^[4] Spanish álcali, Portuguese álcali and Italian alcali belong to the same group.^[4] Klein relates the Arabic verb to words for roasting and burning elsewhere in Semitic, including Akkadian qalū (“to burn”).^[11]

Earliest recorded meaning

A saline substance extracted from the burnt ashes of saltwort or glasswort, mostly sodium carbonate: before 1400, in an alchemical text.^[4] Etymonline likewise has "soda ash" from the late 14th century,^[5] and Ayto and the OED cite Chaucer's Canon's Yeoman's Tale, where it stands in a list of alchemists' materials.^[10][4] The OED also notes salarkelin about 1330, apparently a borrowing of the phrase sal alkali with its ending altered.^[4]

Semantic evolution

The word first named a product of a particular plant: Ayto points out that saltwort was burnt to obtain the ashes.^[10] From 1578 to 1753 it could name the plant itself.^[4][14] From there it was extended to similar substances, natural or manufactured;^[5] from 1562 chemists used it for anything with the properties of soda: an acrid taste and the power of neutralizing acids.^[4] Johnson (1755) still explained the name from the herb, which he said the Egyptians called kali, and gave the wider sense of any substance that effervesces when mixed with an acid.^[15] Etymonline and Ayto date the modern chemical sense to 1813, Ayto crediting Humphry Davy.^[5][10] From 1699 it could be figurative, often as the counterpart of acid.^[4] In the United States from 1848 it meant the mineral salts in the soil, and land rich in them;^[4] from 1852 the verb in the passive meant to be poisoned by such water or ground;^[4] from 1904 an alkali was a person who had spent a long time in such country.^[4][16]

Timeline

• c. 1330 – salarkelin, apparently from Medieval Latin sal alkali.^[4]
• before 1400 – soda ash from the ashes of saltwort or glasswort.^[4][5]
• c. 1405 – attributive, of the nature of alkali, in Chaucer.^[4]
• 1562 – a substance with the characteristic properties of soda.^[4][14]
• 1578 – a plant yielding soda ash (obsolete by 1753).^[4][14]
• 1699 – figurative, often as a counterpart to acid.^[4]
• 1813 – the modern chemical sense.^[5][10]
• 1848 – in the United States, mineral salts in excess in the soil.^[4]
• 1852 – verb, in the passive, to be poisoned by alkaline water or ground.^[4]
• 1902 – an alkali metal.^[4]
• 1904 – a person who frequents alkali country.^[4][16]

Meanings

Noun

1. In chemistry, a soluble base, or a solution of one, such as a hydroxide of sodium or potassium.^[17][6][4]
2. A soluble mineral salt found in the soil of dry regions and in some natural waters; also, land rich in such salts: Nothing but sagebrush grew on the alkali.^[17][4]
3. An alkali metal.^[6][4]
4. A salt obtained from the ashes of plants, largely sodium carbonate or potassium carbonate; soda ash.^[6][4][7]
5. (obsolete, 1578–1753) A plant yielding soda ash, especially saltwort.^[4][7]

Adjective

1. Of the nature of alkali or containing it; of land, rich in alkaline salts: alkali flats.^[4][6]

Word family

• alkalemia
• alkalescent
• alkalic
• alkalify
• alkalimeter
• alkalize
• alkalosis
• antalkali

Related words

• alkaloid
• alkaline
• kali

References

1. ^ a b c d Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b Dictionary.com Unabridged (2016), based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, New York: Random House
3. ^ Benson, Larry D., Glossarial Concordance to Middle English (Chaucer, Gower), Johns Hopkins University, github.com/jhu-digital-manuscripts/gcme
4. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u v w x y z 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
5. ^ a b c d e f Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
6. ^ a b c d e Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
7. ^ a b c Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
8. ^ a b Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
9. ^ a b c The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
10. ^ a b c d e Ayto, John (2005), Word Origins: The Secret Histories of English Words from A to Z, 2nd ed., London: A & C Black
11. ^ a b c Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
12. ^ Partridge, Eric (1966), Origins: A Short Etymological Dictionary of Modern English, 4th ed., London: Routledge & Kegan Paul
13. ^ Weekley, Ernest (1921), An Etymological Dictionary of Modern English, London: John Murray
14. ^ a b c Kay, Christian; Roberts, Jane; Samuels, Michael; Wotherspoon, Irené, eds. (2009), Historical Thesaurus of the Oxford English Dictionary, Oxford: Oxford University Press; online edition (2024)
15. ^ Johnson, Samuel (1755), A Dictionary of the English Language, London; 4th ed. 1773; Johnson's Dictionary Online, ed. Beth Rapp Young et al.
16. ^ a b Green, Jonathon (2010), Green's Dictionary of Slang, London: Chambers; digital ed. 2016–, https://greensdictofslang.com
17. ^ a b Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins