deliquium

Meanings

1. 1
   noun

   archaic: a sudden lapse, failure, or collapse of physical strength, consciousness, or mental powers

   Exhaustion produced a deliquium of judgment and intellectual vigor.

2. 2
   noun

   chemistry: liquefaction caused by absorbing moisture from the air

   The exposed salt underwent deliquium until only a concentrated solution remained.

3. 3
   noun

   literary: a languid, sentimental, or maudlin state of mind

   The speech dissolved into a deliquium of self-pity and exhausted feeling.

Borrowed from Latin deliquium, 'lack, failure, or eclipse,' from delinquere, 'to fail or be lacking.' In English it named a lapse of consciousness and, by analogy with something losing solidity, the absorption of atmospheric moisture until a substance becomes liquid.

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