Emily Dickinson Lexicon

PYR'O-GOM, n.

A variety of diopside. – Ure.

PY-ROL'A-TRY, n. [Gr. πυρ, fire, and λατρεια, worship.]

The worship of fire. – Young.

PY-RO-LIG'NE-OUS, or PY-RO-LIG'NOUS, a. [Gr. πυρ, fire, and L. ligneus, from lignum, wood.]

The latter term only is conformable to the principles of the nomenclature of chimistry. Generated or procured by the distillation of wood; a term applied to the acid obtained by the distillation of wood. The acid so procured is nothing but impure and dilute acetic acid, or impure vinegar. – Chimistry.

PY-RO-LIG'NITE, n. [supra.]

A salt formed by the combination of pyrolignous acid with a base; the same as an acetate.

PY-RO-LITH'IC, or PYR-U'RIC, a. [Gr. πυρ, fire, and λιθος, stone.]

The pyrolithic acid is an acid of recent discovery. It is obtained from the silvery white plates which sublime from uric acid concretions, when distilled in a retort. Now considered identical with cyanuric acid.

PY-ROL'O-GIST, n. [See Pyrology.]

1. A believer in the doctrine of heat. – Black.
2. An investigator of the laws of heat.

PY-ROL'O-GY, n. [Gr. πυρ, fire, and λογος, discourse.]

A treatise on heat; or the natural history of heat, latent and sensible. – Mitchill.

PY-ROM'A-LATE, n. [See Pyromalic.]

A compound of pyromalic acid and a salifiable base. – Ure.

PY-RO-MA'LIC, a. [Gr. πυρ, fire, and L. malum, an apple.]

A volatile acid obtained by heating the malic acid in close vessels. Its properties and composition have not been investigated. It has been supposed to be isomeric with malic acid.

PYR'O-MAN-CY, n. [Gr. πυρ, fire, and μαντεια, divination.]

Divination by fire. – Encyc.

PYR-O-MAN'TIC, a.

Pertaining to pyromancy.

PYR-O-MAN'TIC, n.

One who pretends to divine by fire. – Herbert.

PY-ROM'E-TER, n. [Gr. πυρ, fire, and μετρον, measure.]

1. An instrument for measuring the expansion of bodies by heat.
2. An instrument for measuring degrees of heat above those indicated by the mercurial thermometer; as, the pyrometer of Wedgewood.

PYR-O-MORPH'ITE, n. [Gr. πυρ and μορφη.]

Native phosphate of lead; when heated before the blow-pipe, it fuses into a globule, which assumes a polyhedral crystaline form.

PY-RO-MORPH'OUS, a. [Gr. πυρ, fire, and μορφη, form.]

In mineralogy, having the property of crystalization by fire. – Shepard.

PY-RO-MU'CATE, n.

A combination of pyromucic acid with a base.

PY-RO-MU'CIC, a. [Gr. πυρ, fire, and L. mucus.]

The pyromucic acid is obtained by the action of heat upon the mucic or saccholactic acid. It is a white volatile substance.

PYR'OPE, n. [Gr. πυρωπος; πυρ, fire, and ωψ, face.]

A mineral regarded as a variety of garnet, occurring in small masses or grains, never in crystals. Its color is a poppy or blood red, frequently with a tinge of orange. – Brochant. Cleaveland.

PYR'O-PHANE, n. [Gr. πυρ, fire, and φανος, clear.]

A mineral which in its natural state is opake, but rendered transparent by heat. – Kirwan.

PY-ROPH'A-NOUS, a.

Rendered transparent by heat.

PY-ROPH'O-ROUS, a.

Pertaining to or resembling pyrophorus.

PY-ROPH'O-RUS, n. [Gr. πυρ, fire, and φορος, bearing.]

A substance which takes fire on exposure to air, or which maintains or retains light. – Thomson.

PY-RO-PHYS'A-LITE, n. [See TOPAZ and PHYSALITE.]

PY-ROR'THITE, n.

A mineral little known, resembling orthite, but very different from it, for it burns in the flame of the blowpipe like charcoal; whereas orthite melts. Pyrorthite is in black plates, thin and almost parallel. – Dict. Nat. Hist.

PYR'O-SCOPE, n. [Gr. πυρ, fire, and σκοπεω, to view.]

An instrument for measuring the pulsatory motion of the air, or the intensity of heat radiating from a fire. – Leslie.