Viscosities

Part of speech: noun

Definitions

1. A measure of a fluid's resistance to flow or deformation
2. the property indicating how thick or sticky a liquid is in behavior
3. a scientific term representing the internal friction of a fluid under shear stress

Etymology: "Viscosities" is simply the plural of "viscosity", the measure of how resistant a liquid is to flowing. The noun comes from Middle French "viscosité", which passed to English from Old French, ultimately descending from Medieval Latin "viscositas". The Latin base is "viscosus", meaning sticky or glutinous, a formation built on "viscum", mistletoe, whose berries were used to make birdlime, the sticky substance that trapped birds. That sticky-stuff sense is the word's original footing. "Viscosity" is built from "viscous" plus the suffix "-ity", which turns an adjective describing a quality into a noun naming it, so the word means the state of being viscous. Thicker, slower-flowing liquids such as treacle or honey are therefore viscous in the old, literal sense of clinging to things.

Synonyms: thickness, stickiness, density

Antonyms: fluidity, liquidity