Etymology

Coined by Scottish chemist Joseph Black in 1756Category:English coinages#FIXEDAIR because it can be absorbed, or fixed, by strong bases.

Noun

fixed air (uncountable)Category:English lemmas#FIXEDAIRCategory:English nouns#FIXEDAIRCategory:English uncountable nouns#FIXEDAIRCategory:English uncountable nouns#FIXEDAIRCategory:English multiword terms#FIXEDAIRCategory:English entries with incorrect language header#FIXEDAIRCategory:Pages with entries#FIXED%20AIRCategory:Pages with 1 entry#FIXED%20AIR

1. (chemistryCategory:en:Chemistry#FIXEDAIR, now historicalCategory:English terms with historical senses#FIXEDAIR) Carbon dioxide; carbonic acid.
   • 1790, Edmund Burke, Reflections on the Revolution in France, Oxford, published 2009, page 8:

     The wild gas, the fixed air is plainly broke loose: but we ought to suspend our judgement until […] we see something deeper than the agitation of a troubled and disturbed surface.

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   • 1997, Roy Porter, The Greatest Benefit to Mankind, Folio Society, published 2016, page 246:

     Lavoisier then elucidated the exchange of gases in the lungs: the air inhaled was converted into Black's fixed air, whereas the nitrogen (‘azote’) remained unchanged.

     Category:English terms with quotations#FIXEDAIR

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References

• Glossary of Archaic Chemical Terms