Absorbancy

Part of speech: noun

Pronunciation: /æbˈsɔɹ.bn̩.si/

Definitions

1. The degree to which a substance can capture and retain light, liquid, or heat energy is described by a specific measure
2. It refers to how well a material can hold and accumulate various forms of energy, including light and heat
3. The quality or ability of a material to soak up or retain fluids or other substances

Etymology: The word is a straightforward English formation, built on "absorbance" with the suffix "-y" added. The root is Latin "absorbere," meaning "to suck up" or "to swallow," formed from "ab-" ("away") and "sorbere" ("to suck in"). It passed through Old French "assorbir" and Middle French "absorber" before reaching English as "absorb." Its sense of drawing in liquids was present from the start, so the core meaning has stayed close to the Latin. "Absorbance" is the noun from "absorb," coined with the Latin-derived suffix "-ance" in the way many English nouns of action or state were formed. The later addition of "-y," a common English noun-forming ending, produced "absorbancy" as a variant. The "-ance" form is the more usual one in technical contexts, while "absorbancy" is often used for materials, such as paper, cloth, or sponges, to describe how well they take up liquid.

Synonyms: absorption, soaking, permeability, retention, saturation