different between viscid vs viscous

English

Etymology

From Late Latin viscidus, from viscum (“birdlime”).

Adjective

viscid (comparative more viscid, superlative most viscid)

1. Viscous; having a high viscosity.
2. Sticky, slimy, or glutinous.
   • 1906, O. Henry, The Furnished Room

     They trod noiselessly upon a stair carpet that its own loom would have forsworn. It seemed to have become vegetable; to have degenerated in that rank, sunless air to lush lichen or spreading moss that grew in patches to the staircase and was viscid under the foot like organic matter.

   • 1959, Kurt Vonnegut, The Sirens of Titan, New York: Dial, 2006, Epilogue, pp. 315-316,^[1]

     The pool’s bottoms and sides were lined with a blanket of viscid slime, and the three statues in the middle, the three Sirens of Titan, were under a mucilaginous hump.

3. Covered with a viscid layer.

Usage notes

In everyday usage, much less common than viscous, with which it is roughly interchangeable. In careful usage, viscous is more often used for fluid flow, like honey, while viscid is used for a squishy, slimy feel of more solid substances, like mayonnaise.

Synonyms

• viscous

Antonyms

• inviscid

Derived terms

• viscidity
• viscidly
• viscidness

Translations

References

• Google define
• Merriam-Webster

English

Etymology

First attested in 1605. Borrowed from Middle French visqueux and Late Latin visc?sus, from Latin viscum (“birdlime”).

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /?v?s.k?s/
• Homophone: viscus
• Rhymes: -?sk?s

Adjective

viscous (comparative more viscous, superlative most viscous)

1. Having a thick, sticky consistency between solid and liquid.
2. (physics) Of or pertaining to viscosity.

Synonyms

• (having a thick consistency): syrupy, viscid, viscose, thickflowing

Antonyms

• (physics): inviscid

Derived terms

Related terms

Translations

Old French

Etymology

Borrowed from Late Latin visc?sus, from Latin viscum.

Adjective

viscous m (oblique and nominative feminine singular viscouse)

1. viscous (of a liquid, thick; tending to flow slowly)

Descendants

• Middle French: visqueux
  • French: visqueux
  • ? English: viscous

References

• viscous on the Anglo-Norman On-Line Hub