[L.; = strong water.]
1. The early scientific, and still the popular, name of the Nitric Acid of commerce (dilute HNO3), a powerful solvent and corrosive.
1601. Weever, Mirr. Martyrs, D j. For inke strong aquafortis.
1626. Bacon, Sylva, § 789. Dissolue the Iron in the Aqua Fortis: And weigh the Dissolution.
1762. H. Walpole, Vertue’s Anecd. Paint. (1786), IV. 178. Lord Lovat … etched in aquafortis by William Hogarth.
1878. Huxley, Physiogr., vi. 86. Nitric acid, the substance known commonly as aquafortis.
† 2. Also used of other powerful solvents. Obs.
1607. Topsell, Four-footed Beasts, 308. Wash all his tail with aqua fortis, or strong water, made in this sort: take of green copperas, of allum, of each, one pound,—of white copperas a quartern.
1875. Ure, Dict. Arts, I. 202. Aquafortis did not always mean nitric acid.
3. fig.
1611. Middleton & Dekker, Roar. Girl, Wks. 1873, III. 156. Mony is that Aqua fortis, that eates into many a maidenhead.
1670. Eachard, Contempt Clergy, 55. The blotts and blurrs of our sins must be taken out by the aqua-fortis of our tears.
1873. Symonds, Grk. Poets, viii. 256. The sceptical aquafortis of his age is as strong in Aristophanes as in Euripides.
