Emily Dickinson Lexicon

AL-BU'MIN-OUS, a.

Pertaining to, or having the properties of albumen.

AL'BURN, or AL-BURN'UM, n. [L. alburnum, from albus, white.]

The white and softer part of wood, between the inner bark and the wood. In America, it is popularly called the sap. This is annually acquiring hardness, and becoming wood. – Milne.

AL'BURN, n. [L. alburnus, from albus, white.]

A fish called the bleak. It belongs to the order of Abdominals, and the genus Cyprinus. It is five or six inches in length, and esteemed delicious food. Artificial pearls are made of its scales. – Encyc.

AL-CADE', n. [See ALCAID.]

AL'CA-HEST, or AL'KA-HEST, n. [Arabic.]

A pretended universal solvent, or menstruum. [See Alkahest.]

AL-CA'IC, a.

Pertaining to Alcæus, a lyric poet of Mitylene, in Lesbos, who flourished about the forty-fourth Olympiad; or to other poets of the same name, of which three are mentioned; one an Athenian tragic poet, and another a Messenian.

AL-CA'ICS, n. [plur.]

Several kinds of verse, so called from Alcæus, their inventor. One kind consists of five feet, a spondee or iambic, an iambic, a long syllable and two dactyls. – Encyc.

AL-CAID', n. [Sp. alcayde; Port. alcaide; Ar. قَايدٌ kaidon, with the prefix al, from قَادَ kada, to lead, rule, govern. Hence the Cadi of the Turks.]

Among the Moors, Spaniards and Portuguese, a governor. In Portugal, the chief civil magistrate of a town or city; also the jurisdiction of certain judges of appeal. In Spain, the governor of a castle or fort; also a jailer. – Span. and Port. Dict.

AL-CA-LIM'E-TER, n.

A graduated glass tube employed in determining the quantity of real alkali in potash and soda, by dilute sulphuric acid. – Brande.

AL-CAN'NA, n. [Arabic.]

A plant, a species of Lawsonia; and a powder, prepared from its leaves, used by the Turkish females to give a golden color to the nails and hair. Infused in water, it forms a yellow color; with vinegar, it forms a red. From the berries is extracted an oil, used in medicine. In Cairo, it forms an article of commerce. – Encyc. Theophrast.

AL'CA-TRAZ, n.

The Spanish name of the Pelicanus Onocrotalus of Linnæus; a pelican; also a fish taken on the coast of India. – Span. Dict.

AL-CA-VA'LA, n.

In Spain, a tax on every transfer of property, real or personal. – Encyc.

AL-CE'DO, n. [L.]

The king-fisher; a genus of birds, of the order of Picæ. The species are numerous. They usually live about rivers, feeding on fish, which they take by darting into the water with surprising velocity. [See Halcyon.]

AL-CHIM'IC, or AL-CHIM'IC-AL, a.

Relating to alchimy, or produced by it.

AL-CHIM'IC-AL-LY, adv.

In the manner of alchimy.

AL'CHIM-IST, n.

One who practices alchimy.

AL-CHIM-IST'IC, or AL-CHIM-IST'IC-AL, a.

Practicing alchimy, or relating to it. – Burke. Rev.

AL'CHI-MY, n. [It. alchimia; Ar. al, the, and كِيمِياَ kimia, secret, hidden, or the occult art, from كَمَي kamai, to hide. See Chimistry.]

1. The more sublime and difficult parts of chimistry, and chiefly such as relate to the transmutation of metals into gold, the finding a universal remedy for diseases, and an alkahest or universal solvent, and other things now treated as ridiculous. This pretended science was much cultivated in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, but is now held in contempt.
2. Formerly, a mixed metal used for utensils.

ALC-MA'NI-AN, a.

Pertaining to Alcman, a lyric poet of the twenty-seventh Olympiad, celebrated for his amorous verses. The Alcmanian verse consisted of two dactyls and two trochees. – Encyc.

AL'CO, n.

A quadruped of America, nearly resembling a dog, but mute and melancholy; and this circumstance seems to have given rise to the fable that dogs, transported to America, become mute. The animal was used for food by the native Americans, and the first Spanish settlers; but it is said to be now extinct. It is known also by the name of Techichi. – Clavigero.

AL'CO-HOL, n. [Ar. كَحَلَ kahala; Heb. Syr. and Eth. כהל, to paint with a preparation of powder of antimony. The Oriental females still practice the painting of the eyebrows with this material. The name was applied to this substance, and afterwards to other fine powders, and to highly rectified spirits.]

Pure or highly rectified spirit, obtained from fermented liquors by distillation. It consists of hydrogen, carbon and oxygen. It is extremely light and inflammable, and a powerful stimulant and antiseptic. This is the usual sense of the word; but originally, in Arabic, it signified a fine impalpable powder, in which sense it is still used. – Encyc.

AL'CO-HOL-ATE, n.

A salt in which alcohol appears to take the place of the water of crystalization.

AL-CO-HOL'IC, a.

Pertaining to alcohol, or partaking of its qualities. – Med. Rep.

AL-CO-HOL-I-ZA'TION, n.

The act of rectifying spirit, till it is wholly dephlegmated; or of reducing a substance to an impalpable powder.

AL'CO-HOL-IZE, v.t.

To convert into alcohol; to rectify spirit till it is wholly dephlegmated; also, to reduce a substance to an impalpable powder.