solidus
/ˈsɒlɪdəs
/noun (plural solidi /ˈsɒlɪdʌɪ/)
1chiefly British another term for slash1 (sense 2 of the noun).This latter mark has a number of aliases, being known also as the solidus, oblique or virgule, among other names....
- The virgule or solidus is also used in the following ways.
2 (also solidus curve) Chemistry A curve in a graph of the temperature and composition of a mixture, below which the substance is entirely solid.Although the values for the fluidus curve are identical within experimental error, the saturated lipids have a much higher degree of nonideality of mixing at the solidus curve....
- The upper curve is the liquidus, the lower one the solidus; above the liquidus olivine is liquid, below the solidus it is solid, and between the two curves olivine and liquid coexist.
- At temperatures between the solidus and the liquidus, an SORT phase, predominantly composed of octadecanol, coexists with a tetradecanol-enriched liquid phase.
3 historical A gold coin of the later Roman Empire.This mysterious funerary currency was cast in China but is an attempt to replicate a silver coin in circulation in Bactria and Northern India between 100 B.C. and 100 A.D. that was in turn a copy of a Byzantine gold coin, the solidus....
- He established a gold coinage of 72 solidi to the pound, but the other coinage continued to depreciate.
- Yet another day in the decline of the Empire - and like the solidus and the denarius, the US dollar gets ‘clipped’ a little more each day.
From Latin solidus (nummus)
Origin
Latin, literally 'solid'.