phlogistic

American  

[floh-jis-tik] / floʊˈdʒɪs tɪk /

adjective

1. Pathology. inflammatory.

2. pertaining to or consisting of phlogiston.

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phlogistic British  

/ flɒˈdʒɪstɪk /

adjective

1. pathol of inflammation; inflammatory

2. chem of, concerned with, or containing phlogiston

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Other Word Forms

• postphlogistic adjective

Etymology

Origin of phlogistic

1725–35; < Greek phlogist ( ós ) inflammable (verbid of phlogízein to set on fire; akin to phlox, phlegm ) + -ic

Example Sentences

This reproduction is due, according to the phlogistic chemists, to the giving back, by carbon, of the phlogiston which had escaped during the burning.

From Heroes of Science Chemists by Muir, M. M. Pattison (Matthew Moncrieff Pattison)

But the phlogistic chemistry was not yet overthrown.

From Heroes of Science Chemists by Muir, M. M. Pattison (Matthew Moncrieff Pattison)

The phlogistic theory did more than serve as a means for bringing together many apparently disconnected facts.

From The Story of Alchemy and the Beginnings of Chemistry by Muir, M. M. Pattison

Whatever will unite with pure air, and thence compose an acid, is esteemed in this ingenious theory to be a different kind of phlogistic or inflammable body.

From The Botanic Garden A Poem in Two Parts. Part 1: the Economy of Vegetation by Darwin, Erasmus

Mr. Cavendish has since demonstrated that two parts of vital air or oxygene, and one part of phlogistic air or azote, being long exposed to electric shocks, unite, and produce nitrous acid.

From The Botanic Garden A Poem in Two Parts. Part 1: the Economy of Vegetation by Darwin, Erasmus