Dictionary

aqua fortis en · NOUN

Etymology

Learned borrowing from Latin aqua fortis (literally “strong water”).

Meanings

1. (uncountable) A corrosive liquor made of saltpeter, serving as a solvent for dissolving silver and all other metals except gold.
2. (dated, dialectal, uncountable) Any strong and potentially dangerous alcoholic drink.
   • I’m in the best of spirits, the very best! Nothing like a few glasses of agur-forty to make a man feel on top of the world! 1990, Graham Masterton, Empress, page 166:
   • “Watkey” [vodka] is, in fact, aquafortis, and more injurious than any other spirit. 1871 September 9, “Occasional Notes”, in The Temperance Record, number 805, page 422:
   • Doubtless the drinking of liquor adds to the cost of our judiciary; doubtless it is responsible for some crime; but the question at issue is not one of liquor-drinking vs. teetotalism—it is a question of drinking licensed liquor or Prohibition aquafortis. 1896, W. C. Brann, Brann, the Iconoclast, volume 1, page 390:
   • this man’s whiskey ain’t Red Eye, it ain’t Chain Lightnin’ either, it’s regular Agur-forty, and there isn’t a man living can stand a glass and keep his senses. 1867 December 25, “Police Reports”, in New Orleans Picayune:
   • Here’s to her health and to her offspring haughty — And let the toast be drunk in aqua forty. 1917, Harvard College Class of 1872: Tenth Report of the Secretary, page 97:
3. (archaic, uncountable) Synonym of nitric acid.

Forms

Deriveds

aquafortist

Relateds

aqua regia

Synonyms

strong water · nitric acid · A.F. · A.F. · strong water

Translations (2)

pt água-forte (a corrosive liquor made of saltpeter, serving as a solvent for dissolving silver and all other metals except gold) · la aqua fortis (a corrosive liquor made of saltpeter, serving as a solvent for dissolving silver and all other metals except gold)