acid test

acid test
acid test
When Fowler was preparing the first edition of Modern English Usage, he remarked that acid test was undoubtedly the popularized technical term ‘most in vogue at the moment of writing (1920)’. In scientific use it meant the use of nitric acid to test for gold; in transferred use (typically as the acid test) it had acquired the broad sense ‘a critical or conclusive test’, a use that was popularized by Woodrow Wilson two years before Fowler was writing

• (The treatment accorded Russia by her sister nations in the months to come will be the acid test of their good will —Times, 1918).

The term is also used with an

• (Fallujah is an acid test for the way the US deals with entrenched military resistance —news transcript, AusE 2004 [OEC])

and is occasionally qualified in some way

• (It's a better time to put Kesey to the moral acid test —website, AmE 2004 [OEC]).

For other extensions of technical terms see the table at popularized technicalities.

Modern English usage. 2014.

Игры ⚽ Нужна курсовая?

Look at other dictionaries:

  • Acid test — may refer to:*Acid test (gold), a test used to determine weather a metal is real gold or not. Ever since, a generalized term for verified or approved/tested . *Acid Test (Liquidity Ratio), a ratio used to determine the liquidity of a business… …   Wikipedia

  • Acid Test — (The Electric Kool Aid Acid Test) est un roman de journalisme littéraire écrit par Tom Wolfe en 1968, au début de sa carrière. Sommaire 1 Synopsis 2 Personnes et groupes mentionnés dans Acid Test 3 Référence …   Wikipédia en Français

  • Acid test — Acid test: Acid1 Acid2 Acid3 Лакмус Электропрохладительный кислотный тест Коэффициент срочной ликвидности ACID См. также Acid  & …   Википедия

  • Acid Test — es un test en el que pone a prueba los navegadores para saber si cumple los estándares web. Versiones Hay 3 versiones: Acid1, Acid2 y Acid3 Acid1 fue importante para establecer la interoperabilidad entre los principios de base de referencia los… …   Wikipedia Español

  • acid test — ► NOUN ▪ a conclusive test of success or value. ORIGIN from the original use denoting a test for gold using nitric acid …   English terms dictionary

  • acid test — n. [orig. a test of gold by acid] a crucial, final test that proves the value or quality of something …   English World dictionary

  • acid test — noun count usually singular a fact, event, or situation that proves something, for example whether a plan will work: The state of the economy is usually the acid test of any government s success …   Usage of the words and phrases in modern English

  • acid test — An acid test is something that proves whether something is good, effective, etc, or not …   The small dictionary of idiomes

  • acid test — [n] test of value, genuineness proof, proving ground, substantiation, trial, verification; concepts 87,290,291 …   New thesaurus

  • Acid-Test — Die Acid Tests (von engl. acid für „Säure“) sind Test Webseiten zur Prüfung von Webbrowsern und ähnlichen Anwendungen auf ihre Konformität zu den Standards des World Wide Web Consortiums (W3C). Der erste Acid Test aus dem Jahr 1998 wurde von Todd …   Deutsch Wikipedia

Share the article and excerpts

Direct link
… Do a right-click on the link above
and select “Copy Link”