liquefy

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle English liquefien,^[2][3][4] borrowed from Old French liquefier,^[4][3][5][2] now liquéfier,^[6][7] and the Middle English Dictionary adds a second source, the passive liquefierī.^[2][8] The French verb comes from liquefaciō (“to make liquid, melt”),^{[6][4][3][5][9]} formed from liqueō (“to be fluid”) and faciō (“to make”),^[4][3][5] its ending being assimilated to the French verbs in -fier.^[10][9] The form liquefier is recorded in Anglo-Norman from the third quarter of the 13th century.^[11] That Latin verb is related to līquor (“to melt, flow”), and Etymonline takes it back to Proto-Indo-European *wleik- (“to flow, run”).^[5]

Earliest recorded meaning

To make something liquid or melt it: probably before 1425, in a translation of Chauliac's Grande Chirurgie, of oil, glue and metal, and also to dissolve warts and excess flesh.^[2][3] Etymonline likewise has the early 15th century.^[5] The OED has a later first date, 1483, for a figurative use, and 1547 for the literal one.^[6]

Semantic evolution

The first English uses are in surgical writing, where the verb means melting oil and glue and dissolving warts.^[2] Caxton in 1483 used it figuratively, to melt with spiritual ardour.^[6] From 1583 it could also be intransitive, to become liquid.^[6] Johnson (1755) defined the transitive verb as "to melt; to dissolve", and quoted Addison for the intransitive, on the blood of St Januarius.^[12] A technical sense, to pronounce a consonant as a liquid, appears in 1714.^[6] A joking sense, to soak with drink, appears in Walter Scott's journal in 1826.^[6] The application to gases belongs to physics, and modern dictionaries define the verb for both solids and gases.^[6][10][4] The sense "to dissolve in a liquid" has been lost.^[6][7] The spelling liquify goes back to Middle English and survives as a less common variant.^[2][10][4]

Timeline

• before 1425 – to melt or dissolve, in a translation of Chauliac.^[2][3] The OED's first example of this sense is from 1547.^[6]
• 1483 – figurative, to melt with spiritual ardour, in Caxton.^[6][13]
• 1583 – intransitive, to become liquid.^[6][13]
• 1714 – to give a consonant a liquid pronunciation.^[6]
• 1826 – jocular, to soak with drink.^[6]

Meanings

Verb

1. To make something liquid, by melting a solid or by condensing a gas: The plant liquefies natural gas for shipping.^{[4][10][14][6]}
2. To become liquid: The butter liquefied in the sun.^{[10][4][14][6]}
3. (rare) To pronounce a consonant as a liquid.^[6][7]
4. (jocular) To drink, or to soak with liquor.^[6][7][15]
5. (obsolete) To dissolve something in a liquid.^[6][7][12]

Word family

• liquefier
• liquefiable
• nonliquefying
• reliquefy

Related words

• liquid
• liquor
• liquefaction
• liquescent
• -fy

References

1. ^ Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g Kurath, Hans; Kuhn, Sherman M.; Lewis, Robert E., eds. (1952–2001), Middle English Dictionary, Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press; online edition ed. Frances McSparran et al. (2000–2018)
3. ^ a b c d e f Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
4. ^ a b c d e f g h The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
5. ^ a b c d e Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
6. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
7. ^ a b c d e Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
8. ^ Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
9. ^ a b Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
10. ^ a b c d e Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
11. ^ Anglo-Norman Dictionary (AND2), Aberystwyth University, anglo-norman.net (2nd ed., 2005–)
12. ^ a b Johnson, Samuel (1755), A Dictionary of the English Language, London; 4th ed. 1773; Johnson's Dictionary Online, ed. Beth Rapp Young et al.
13. ^ a b Kay, Christian; Roberts, Jane; Samuels, Michael; Wotherspoon, Irené, eds. (2009), Historical Thesaurus of the Oxford English Dictionary, Oxford: Oxford University Press; online edition (2024)
14. ^ a b Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins
15. ^ The Chambers Dictionary (2014), 13th ed., Edinburgh: Chambers