Superabsorbents

Part of speech: noun

Definitions

1. Materials that can absorb and retain large amounts of liquid relative to their own mass
2. Substances often used in products to control moisture, such as diapers and agricultural applications
3. Polymers designed to absorb fluids quickly and hold them in various industrial or consumer uses

Etymology: The plural form here belongs to "superabsorbent", a word built from two parts: the Latin prefix "super-", meaning "above" or "beyond", and "absorbent", which comes from Latin "absorbēns", the present participle of "absorbēre", "to suck up" or "swallow". That Latin verb is itself made of "ab-", "away", and "sorbēre", "to suck in", so the core image is of drawing liquid in and taking it away. The English "absorbent" entered the language as an adjective describing materials that soak up liquid, and "superabsorbent" simply adds the prefix to intensify that sense: a material that takes in far more fluid than ordinary absorbent stuff. The term is a modern technical compound, not an ancient word, and its plural, "superabsorbents", refers to the whole class of such materials.