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Glite Dictionary
cohobation

cohobation

1 9.9
A process of repeatedly boiling and cooling a liquid and returning it to the same container to make it purer
  • noun
  • /koʊhəˈbeɪʃən/
  • Archaic
: cohobación
  • The ancient alchemists practiced cohobation to purify substances.

Examples

  • Repeated cohobation was necessary to achieve the desired concentration of the extract.

  • The alchemist performed cohobation to purify the solution further.

  • In historical chemistry, cohobation was a common technique for refining liquids.

  • Cohobation is essential in the alchemy process.

  • The alchemist described the technique of cohobation as essential for purifying the liquid gold through repeated distillations.

  • In his experiments, he used cohobation to refine the essential oils, enhancing their potency and aroma.

  • By employing cohobation, the chemist was able to isolate the desired compounds from the mixture through continuous distillation.

Surface Forms

cohobation singular
cohobations plural

Morphology

cohobation = cohobate (opaque) = co + hob + ation

The immediate base 'cohobate' is itself obscure and not transparent to modern English speakers.

Etymology

The word cohobation comes from a Latin verb cohobare that means 'to boil together'. So cohobation is easy to remember: it names the process of putting the distilled liquid back into the original vessel and boiling it again to make it purer.