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la⋅va
[lah-vuh, lav-uh] 
–noun
| 1. | the molten, fluid rock that issues from a volcano or volcanic vent. |
| 2. | the rock formed when this solidifies, occurring in many varieties differing greatly in structure and constitution. |
Origin:
1740–50; < It, orig. Neapolitan dial.: avalanche < L lābēs a sliding down, falling, akin to lābī to slide
1740–50; < It, orig. Neapolitan dial.: avalanche < L lābēs a sliding down, falling, akin to lābī to slide
Dictionary.com Unabridged
Based on the Random House Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2009.
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Based on the Random House Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2009.
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Link To Lava
| la·va (lä'və, lāv'ə) n.
[Italian, perhaps from Latin lābēs, fall, from Latin lābī, to fall.] Word History: Lava was appropriately named by people living near Mount Vesuvius. The only active volcano on the European mainland, Vesuvius has erupted frequently since Pompeii and Herculaneum were buried by it in A.D. 79. The Neapolitans who lived in the vicinity took the Italian word lava, meaning "a stream caused suddenly by rain," and applied it to the streams of molten rock coming down the sides of Vesuvius. The term was then taken into Standard Italian, where it came to mean the rock in both its molten and its solidified states. The Italian word in all its senses was borrowed into English around the middle of the 18th century (1750 being the earliest date of record). |
The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
Copyright © 2009 by Houghton Mifflin Company.
Published by Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.
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Copyright © 2009 by Houghton Mifflin Company.
Published by Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.
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Lava
La"va\, n. [It. lava lava, orig. in Naples, a torrent of rain overflowing the streets, fr. It. & L. lavare to wash. See Lave.] The melted rock ejected by a volcano from its top or fissured sides. It flows out in streams sometimes miles in length. It also issues from fissures in the earth's surface, and forms beds covering many square miles, as in the Northwestern United States. Note: Lavas are classed, according to their structure, as scoriaceous or cellular, glassy, stony, etc., and according to the material of which they consist, as doleritic, trachytic, etc. Lava millstone, a hard and coarse basaltic millstone from the neighborhood of the Rhine. Lava ware, a kind of cheap pottery made of iron slag cast into tiles, urns, table tops, etc., resembling lava in appearance.
Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary, © 1996, 1998 MICRA, Inc.
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The American Heritage® New Dictionary of Cultural Literacy, Third Edition
Copyright © 2005 by Houghton Mifflin Company.
Published by Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.
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Copyright © 2005 by Houghton Mifflin Company.
Published by Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.
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lava
1750, from It. (Neapolitan or Calabrian dialect) lava "torrent, stream," traditionally from L. lavare "to wash" (see lave). Originally applied in It. to flash flood rivulets after downpours, then to streams of molten rock from Vesuvius. Alternate etymology is from L. labes "a fall," from labi "to fall." Lava lamp is attested from 1970, earlier lava light (reg. U.S., 1968, as Lava Lite).
Online Etymology Dictionary, © 2001 Douglas Harper
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lava (lä'və) Pronunciation Key
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The American Heritage® Science Dictionary
Copyright © 2002. Published by Houghton Mifflin. All rights reserved.
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Copyright © 2002. Published by Houghton Mifflin. All rights reserved.
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LAVA
A language for VLSI that deals with "sticks", i.e. wires represented as lines with thickness.
["A Target Language for Silicon Compilers", R.J. Matthews et al, IEEE COMPCON, 1982, pp. 349-353].
(1994-12-07)
The Free On-line Dictionary of Computing, © 1993-2007 Denis Howe
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