Acidise

Part of speech: verb

Definitions

1. To subject something to the action of an acid, soaking or treating a material so it is chemically altered
2. To treat a substance with acid in order to change its properties or prepare it for a process
3. To impregnate or dose a material with acidic chemicals, altering its composition through exposure

Etymology: Acidise is a straightforward formation: the noun-turned-stem "acid" with the verb-forming suffix "-ise." The suffix has a longer ancestry than the word it is attached to. It passed from ancient Greek, where verbs ending in "-izein" were common, through Late Latin "-izare," into Middle French "-iser" and then Middle English "-isen," before settling into the modern English "-ise." Its job is simple: it turns a noun into a verb meaning to treat or combine with that noun. "Acid" itself has a more tangled path, coming from Latin "acidus," meaning sour, via French "acide." So acidise means, literally, to make something sour or acidic, by adding acid. The formation is a plain English compound of a borrowed noun and a native-style suffix, with no single coiner to credit.

Synonyms: acidify, acidulate

Antonyms: alkalize, neutralize