aqua fortis

noun Chemistry.

nitric acid.

Origin of aqua fortis

1595–1605; < Latin: literally, strong water

Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2018

Examples from the Web for aqua fortis

Historical Examples of aqua fortis

Place the mud in a glass vessel, and pour on it some nitric acid (aqua-fortis).
The Sea Shore
William S. Furneaux
How often did I wish the flask ten times its size, and filled with aqua-fortis!
Audubon and his Journals, Vol. 2
Maria R. Audubon
He has a forehead of native brass, and I will write upon it with aqua-fortis.
The Modern Scottish Minstrel, Volume II.
Various
We are told that some aqua-fortis having fallen by accident upon his spectacles, the glass was corroded by it.
The Queer, the Quaint and the Quizzical
Frank H. Stauffer
How the simperers would sheer off; the tea that night might as well be made of aqua-fortis.
Charlemont
W. Gilmore Simms

British Dictionary definitions for aqua fortis

aqua fortis

noun

an obsolete name for nitric acid

Word Origin for aqua fortis

C17: from Latin, literally: strong water

Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012

Word Origin and History for aqua fortis

old name for "concentrated nitric acid," c.1600, Latin, literally "strong water;" see aqua- + fort. So called for its power of dissolving metals (copper, silver) unaffected by other agents.