Definitions

from The Century Dictionary.

  • noun Density; the denseness or compactness which belongs to substances not perfectly liquid nor perfectly solid; inspissated condition.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • noun The quality or state of being spissated.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • noun density, thickness; the state or quality of being inspissated, thickened (used of liquids)

Etymologies

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

From Latin spissitudo, from spissus ("thick").

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Examples

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  • To impart to porter this property of frothing when poured from one vessel into another, or to produce what is also termed a _cauliflower head_, the mixture called _beer-heading_, composed of common green vitriol (sulphate of iron,) alum, and salt, is added. This addition tothe beer is generally made by the publicans. It is unnecessary togenuine beer, which of itself possesses the property of bearing a strongwhite froth, without these additions; and it is only in consequence of table beer being mixed with strong beer, that the frothing property of the porter is lost. From experiments I have tried on this subject, I have reason to believe that the sulphate of iron, added for that purpose, does not possess the power ascribed to it. But the publicans frequently, when they fine a butt of beer, by means of isinglass, adulterate the porter at the same time with table beer, together with a quantity of molasses and a small portion of extract of gentian root, to keep up the peculiar flavour of the porter; and it is to the molasses chiefly, which gives a spissitude to the beer, that the frothing property must be ascribed; for, without it, the sulphate of iron does not produce the property of frothing in diluted beer.

    A Treatise on Adulterations of Food, and

    Culinary Poisons, by Fredrick Accum

    June 24, 2009