Physics. Also calory. [a. mod.F. calorie, arbitrarily f. L. calor heat.] The French conventional unit of heat; also applied to the English unit. See first quot.
1870. T. L. Phipson, trans. Guillemin’s Sun, 37. The quantity of heat which is called a calorie is … the amount required to raise 1 kilogramine of water 1° centigrade…. In England the … calorie is sometimes stated to be the quantity required to raise 1 lb. of water from 60° to 61° Fahr., the equivalent of which in work is 722 foot-pounds.
1880. Nature, XXI. 437. The amount of heat received from the sun is about twelve calories, per square metre, per minute.
