Forms: 4–7 alcaly, -ie, alkaly, 8 alcali, 8–9 alkali. Pl. alkalis, sometimes -ies. [a. Fr. alcali, ad. (ultimately) Arab. al-qalīy, the ‘calcined ashes’ of the plants Salsola and Salicornia, f. qalay to fry, roast in a pan; hence transferred to the plants themselves so employed.]
1. orig. A saline substance obtained by lixiviating the calcined ashes of marine plants; soda-ash.
c. 1386. Chaucer, Chan. Yem. Prol. & T., 257. Salt tartre, alcaly [v.r. alkaly, alcaly, alcalie], and salt preparat, And combust matieres, and coagulat.
1471. Ripley, Comp. Alch., in Ashm. 1652, v. 190. Sal Alkaly, sal Alembroke, sal Attinckarr.
1578. Lyte, Dodoens, 116. The axsen or asshes whiche are made of burnt Kali, is called in Latin of the Alcumistes and Glassemakers Alumen Catinum, but the Salte which is made of the same Axsen, is called Sal Alkali.
1610. B. Jonson, Alchem., I. iii. (1616), 616. You shall deale much, with mineralls … I know, you have Arsnike, Vitriol, Sal-tartre, Argaile, Alkaly.
1712. trans. Pomet’s Hist. Drugs, I. 102. They make of this Salt—a white Salt call’d Salt of Kali or Alkali.
2. Bot. The plant Saltwort (Salsola Kali); from the ashes of which (or of the allied Salsola Soda) the original Alkali was derived.
1578. Lyte, Dodoens, 115. It [Salsola Kali] is the right Kali or Alkali of the Arabians: some call it in English Salteworte; we may also call it Kali or prickled Kali.
1753. Hanway, Trav. (1762), I. IV. xiv. 250. We found it to be … the small sort of kali (or alkali, glass-wort: the ash of this is used in making glass and soap.
1861. Emily A. Beaufort, Egypt. Sepulchres (ed. 2), I. xv. 337. The hashish el kali which covered the ground: this is the plant from the ashes of which they make potash for soap.
3. Any substance possessing the characteristics of soda, i.e., a caustic or acrid taste, the power of forming a soap with oil, and of effervescing with or neutralizing acids.
In early chemistry, alkali was supposed to be a specific substance, which existed, Fixed (in soda, potash), Volatile (in ammonia). Duhamel (1736), showed that there were distinct alkalis, and these were distinguished as Mineral alkali (soda), Vegetable alkali (potash), Animal alkali (ammonia).
1612. Woodall, Surg. Mate, Wks. 1653, 259. Paracelsus termeth every vegetable Salt Alkaly.
1669. Phil. Trans., IV. 1055. Acids and Alcaly’s mutually operate upon one another to a satiety.
1657. G. Starkey, Helmont’s Vind., 298. Alcalyes are the fixt Salts of combustible Concretes, fixed by the activity of the fire, which were (before burning) volatile.
1682. Grew, Anat. Pl., Lect. ii. i. § 8. 240. The predominant Salt in most Minerals, and parts of Animals, is an Alkaly: in the former, usually a fixed; in the latter, a volatile Alkaly.
1685. Boyle, Min. Waters, 85. Strong Spirit of Urine, and other volatile Alcaly’s.
1732. Arbuthnot, Rules of Diet, i. 246. Mulberries pectoral, corrective of the bilious Alkali.
1748. Hartley, Observ. Man, I. i. § 1 ¶ 5. The effervescence which attends the Mixture of Acids and Alcali’s.
1756. C. Lucas, Ess. Waters, I. 9. Native or Mineral alcali is the basis of common salt.
1788. Austin, in Phil. Trans., LXXVIII. 381. A very pungent smell of volatile alkali is immediately perceived.
1822. Imison, Sc. & Art, II. 4. If some oil and some alkali be put together they will unite and form soap.
1825. Macaulay, Ess., Milton, I. 7. The conflicting ingredients, like an acid and an alkali mixed.
4. fig.
1702. Eng. Theophr., 141. The church of England generally preaches alcali’s, the Presbyterians acids.
5. Comm. Any form in which the substances above mentioned are used in commerce or the arts, or manufactured from other substances; once given specially to an impure soda, now applied both to caustic soda and caustic potash, and other alkaline products.
1822. Imison, Sc. & Art, II. 168. The alcali is one of the chief articles of expense used in bleaching.
1876. Ure, Dict. Arts, I. 71. Or alkali manufactured in the United Kingdom the following quantities were exported. Ibid., III. 861. Before the passing of the Alkali Act, or at least before the introduction of the Alkali Bill into Parliament.
6. Mod. Chem. A series of the compounds called BASES, with well-marked characters, analogous to, and including soda, potash and ammonia; they are highly soluble in water, producing caustic or corrosive solutions, which neutralize strong acids, turn vegetable yellows to brown, reds to blue, and purples to green; in the decomposition of a compound they are relatively electro-positive.
‘In its most restricted, but most usual sense, it is applied to four substances only: hydrate of potassium (potash), hydrate of sodium (soda), hydrate of lithium (lithia), and hydrate of ammonium (which may be supposed to exist in the aqueous solution of ammonia). In a more general sense it is applied to the hydrates of the so-called alkaline earths (baryta, strontia, and lime), and to a large number of organic substances both natural and artificial, [called] alkaloids and ammonium-bases. The first four bodies are sometimes spoken of as alkalis proper, when it is wished specially to distinguish them from the other bases.’ Watts, Dict. Chem. Hence, Fixed or Mineral alkalis, the hydrates of the metals above-named; Vegetable alkalis, the alkaloids; Organic alkalis, all the organic bases containing nitrogen, whether of vegetable or animal origin.
1813. Sir H. Davy, Agric. Chem., 20. The fixed alkalies which were formerly regarded as elementary bodies, it has been my good fortune to decompose.
1863. Watts, Dict. Chem. (1879), I. 117. The relations of the alkalis to other substances lead to the representation of them as hydrates, or as water in which half the hydrogen is replaced by a metal or compound radicle. The earliest addition made by modern chemistry to the old list or alkalis was morphia…. This was the first organic alkali, or alkaloid which became known.
1875. Ure, Dict. Arts, I. 71. Modern chemists regard all organic alkalis as derived from the type ammonia or oxide of ammonium.
7. Comb. alkali act (see quot.); alkali-albumen, -inate, a precipitate thrown down from an albuminous fluid treated with dilute alkali, and neutralized by dilute acid; alkali-metal = ALKALINE metal; alkali-waste, a by-product obtained in the manufacture of soda ash, consisting of sulphide of calcium; alkali-work, a manufactory where the alkali of commerce is prepared, or where carbonate of soda is prepared from common salt.
1875. Ure, Dict. Arts, III. 861. The Alkali Act of July 28, 1863, is ‘An Act for the more effectual condensation of Muriatic Acid in Alkali works.’ An alkali-work is defined as ‘every work for the manufacture of alkali, sulphate of soda, or sulphate of potash, in which muriatic acid is evolved.’
1879. Syd. Soc. Lex., s.v., Alkali-albumen is not distinguishable from Casein, which is also termed the natural alkali-albumen.
1878. Kingzett, Anim. Chem., 69. The organic matter of pancreatic juice contains soluble albumin and alkali-albuminate.
