athermancy

athermancy

English

Etymology

See athermanous.

Noun

athermancy (uncountable)

1. Inability to transmit radiant heat; impermeability to heat.
   • 1862, John Tyndall, "Further Researches on the Absorption and Radiation of Heat by Gaseous Matter", Philosophical Transactions, in Contributions to Molecular Physics in the Domain of Radiant Heat (1893), page 106

     In fact the very experiments devised to show conductivity proved in a very striking manner the existence of athermancy, or opacity to radiant heat, in the case of a considerable number of gases.

Part or all of this entry has been imported from the 1913 edition of Webster’s Dictionary, which is now free of copyright and hence in the public domain. The imported definitions may be significantly out of date, and any more recent senses may be completely missing.
(See the entry for athermancy in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, G. & C. Merriam, 1913)