Adiabatically

Part of speech: adverb

Definitions

1. In a manner that involves no heat transfer to or from surroundings during a process
2. Pertaining to changes in physical systems that occur without the exchange of heat with the environment
3. Describing thermodynamic processes where heat does not flow, often leading to changes in temperature solely due to pressure variations

Etymology: The adverb is simply the adjective "adiabatic" with the English suffix "-ally" attached, the same ending that turns "basic" into "basically" or "logic" into "logically." The adjective itself is built from Greek roots: "a-" meaning "not," and "diabatos," meaning "passable," from "dia-" ("through") and "bainein" ("to go"). Literally, the idea is something that cannot be passed through, which is exactly what a perfectly insulated system is: heat cannot cross its boundary. The suffix traces back through Latin "-alis" and Old French "-al" to ancient roots meaning "like" or "of the kind of," and reached English as "-ally" through Middle English. The Old English ancestor "-līċe" is a cousin of the modern word "like," which is why the ending carries the sense of "in the manner of." Physicists use the term to describe a process in which a gas or other system changes its pressure and volume with no heat entering or leaving it. Because heat is shut out, any temperature change comes entirely from the work done on or by the system.