Phlogisticating

Part of speech: verb

Definitions

1. Acting to cause or increase inflammation or burning sensation ; engaging in the process of igniting or setting something aflame ; exhibiting behavior that provokes irritation or intense excitement
2. Producing heat or fire through a chemical reaction or other means ; participating in the act of causing combustion or redness ; demonstrating traits that contribute to agitation or feverish activity
3. Generating warmth or igniting substances as part of a transformative process ; involved in the initiation or enhancement of burning ; showing characteristics likely to inflame feelings or physical tissue

Etymology: "Phlogisticating" belongs to the chemistry of the 1700s, when scientists believed that burning released a hidden substance called phlogiston. The name came from the Greek "phlogistos," meaning "burned up" or "inflammable," itself built from "phlogizein," to set on fire. Once chemists had a word for that imagined fire-stuff, they needed verbs to describe adding it to things, and "phlogisticate" was formed by attaching the suffix "-ate" to the adjective "phlogistic." The suffix turns a descriptive word into an action, so to phlogisticate something was to load it with phlogiston. Used in the present participle, the verb describes the ongoing act of infusing a substance with that imagined fire-essence. The word is a product of a theory that was later abandoned: when Antoine Lavoisier showed that burning involves combining with oxygen, phlogiston was discarded, and the verb went with it. Its survival today is mostly in histories of chemistry, where it marks the vocabulary of a science that once explained flame in a very different way.

Synonyms: combusting, burning, oxidizing, inflaming, igniting

Antonyms: extinguishing, quenching, dousing, smothering