viscoid

By surface analysis, visco- +‎ -oid; evidently independently coined several times by several scientists in the late nineteenth through early twentieth centuries.

• (UK, US, Canada) IPA^(key): /ˈvɪs.kɔɪd/
• (General Australian) IPA^(key): /ˈvɪs.koɪd/
• Rhymes: -ɪskɔɪd

viscoid (not comparable)

1. (dated) Made of (composed of) viscoid (which is a powered amorphous form of cellulose).
2. (dated) Made from (derived from) viscose (which is a liquid made from cellulose).
3. (dated, geology, chiefly of glacier flow) Describing a type of motion involving the hydrodynamics of viscous fluids intermixing.

   Coordinate term: viscous

   • 1902, Joseph Le Conte, “Chapter II: Aqueous agencies”, in Elements of Geology: A Text-book for Colleges and for the General Reader‎^[1], 4th edition, D. Appleton and Company, page 59:

     Laws of Glacier-Motion.—The term differential motion is a condensed expression for all the laws of glacier-motion. It asserts that the different parts of a glacier do not move together as a solid, but move among themselves in the manner of a fluid. A glacier moves like a fluid, though a very stiff, viscous fluid; its motion may therefore be rightly called viscoid. We will mention some of the most important laws of fluid-motion, and show that glaciers conform to them […]

4. (catachresis) Misconstruction of viscous.
   • 2014, Giles W.L. Boland, Gastrointestinal Imaging: The Requisites (The Requisites in Radiology series)‎^[2], 4th edition, Elsevier, →ISBN, page 200:

     Cystic fibrosis has a number of GI [gastrointestinal] complications, mostly resulting from the viscous mucoid inspissated material that occupies the small and large bowel. These include meconium ileus, intussusception, and appendicitis. The colon can also become occupied by the viscoid material, leading to meconium ileus equivalent syndrome, which resembles meconium ileus and predominantly affects the cecum and ascending colon.

viscoid (usually uncountable, plural viscoids)

1. (dated) A powdered amorphous form of cellulose.

   Hypernyms: cellulose < polysaccharide < substance, material

   • 1896 April 17, Clayton Beadle, O.W. Dahl, “Increase in temperature of cellulose on absorption of atmospheric moisture”, in Chemical News‎^[3], volume 73, number 1899, page 180:

     One of us observed that anhydrous cellulose rose in temperature whilst taking up moisture from the atmosphere, and that this rise of temperature appeared to have some relation to the increase in weight (Nature, xlix., 457; and Chemical News, Ixxi., 1). The above experiments were done with cotton-wool alone. We have carefully repeated these experiments, but using, in addition to cotton-wool (whose fibres were 20–30 m.m. in length), cotton mechanically disintegrated by a dry process (fibres reduced to 1–1·5 m.m.), and a finely-powdered amorphous form of cellulose, which we shall refer to as "viscoid." Viscoid is obtained by treating cotton with strong alkali and carbon disulphide, dissolving the cellulose thiocarbonate obtained in water, and regenerating the cellulose as a gelatinous mass by heat. […] One thing is apparent from these experiments, and that is that the percentage of moisture taken up decreases with the fineness of the cellulose. This is true with cellulose in the fibrous form, such as cotton, as well as with viscoids. The fact that large masses of viscoid have a much higher hygroscopic moisture than viscoid alter pulverising lends support to this view. It is also noticeable that, ceteris paribus, the curve becomes more uniform with the fineness of the particles of the cellulose. Thus, we notice that the cotton-wool curves are somewhat irregular, but that the same after disintegration are more regular. The coarse powdered viscoid is also much less regular than the fine powdered. In order to determine the rise in temperature, the cellulose in each, after drying in the water-bath and allowing to cool to the temperature of the atmosphere in a weighing tube, was placed round the bulb of a sensitive thermometer; and a similar thermometer placed at a distance of about four inches was used to indicate the temperature of the atmosphere. The cotton-wool was merely tied on to the bulb of the thermometer, but the pulverised cotton and viscoid were contained in a cage of thin wire gauze, so as to allow free access of the air.