accelerant

See also: accélérant

English
WOTD – 12 January 2021

Etymology

From accelerate +‎ -ant (suffix forming agent nouns from verbs, or forming adjectives with senses of being prone or tending to do the actions of verbs).[1]

Pronunciation
  • (Received Pronunciation) IPA(key): /əkˈsɛləɹ(ə)nt/, /æk-/
  • (General American) IPA(key): /əkˈsɛləɹənt/, /æk-/
  • Audio (RP)(file)
  • Hyphenation: ac‧cel‧er‧ant

Noun

accelerant (plural accelerants)

  1. (chemistry) Any substance that can bond or mix with, or disturb, another substance and cause an increase in the speed of a natural or artificial chemical process.
    1. In the context of fire protection, a substance that accelerates the development of a fire, especially some hydrocarbon-based fuel used to spread a fire caused by arson.
      • 2010 September 25, William Glaberson, “Accelerant Was on Girls’ Beds, Witness Tells a Connecticut Jury”, in The New York Times‎, →ISSN:
        Accelerant was poured across the beds where the two daughters of a family in Cheshire, Conn., had been tied before a fire during a home invasion in 2007, a fire investigator told jurors on Friday.
    2. A substance used to catalyze the vulcanization of rubber.
  2. (figurative) Something that speeds up a process or the uptake of something else.
    • 2017 August 16, Laura Hudson, “Using YouTube as an Accelerant for Video Games”, in The New York Times‎, →ISSN:
      Hello Neighbor’s experience reflects the rise of video sites like YouTube as an accelerant for the video game business.
    • 2019 January 26, Kitty Empire [pseudonym], “The Streets review – the agony and ecstasy of a great everyman”, in Katharine Viner, editor, The Guardian‎, London: Guardian News & Media, →ISSN, →OCLC, archived from the original on 8 April 2019:
      [Mike] Skinner can be credited with pouring lots of accelerant on pop in his time. In his absence, Caribbean-derived UK bass music became the de facto sound of British youth.

Translations

See also

Adjective

accelerant (comparative more accelerant, superlative most accelerant)

  1. Causing acceleration or speeding up; accelerating.

Translations

References
  1. “accelerant, n. and adj.”, in OED Online Paid subscription required⁠, Oxford, Oxfordshire: Oxford University Press, December 2011; “accelerant, n. and adj.”, in Lexico, Dictionary.com; Oxford University Press, 2019–2022.

Further reading

Catalan

Verb

accelerant

  1. gerund of accelerar

Latin

Verb

accelerant

  1. third-person plural present active indicative of accelerō
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