Acetify

Part of speech: verb

Pronunciation: /əˈsiːtɪfaɪ/

Definitions

1. To convert a material into acetic acid, to cause a substance to become sour or acidic, and to change a solution by increasing its acidity through the production of acetic acid
2. To chemically transform a substance by producing acetic acid, thereby causing it to become sour or acidic
3. To induce acidity in a solution by converting its components into acetic acid, resulting in a sour taste or property

Etymology: Acetify means to turn something into vinegar, or to undergo that change through fermentation. It is built from the Latin "acetum," meaning vinegar, which itself comes from "acere," to be sour. The ending "-fy" comes from Latin "-ficare," a suffix meaning "to make," which English adopted in countless verbs such as "purify" and "clarify." So the word literally means "to make into vinegar." The verb may also have been formed by back-formation from "acetification," the noun for the process of turning wine or cider into vinegar. Speakers who had a noun ending in "-ification" would sometimes derive a verb by dropping the noun's ending, producing a shorter form that matches the same process.

Synonyms: acidify, sour