[lah-vuh, lav-uh] 
| 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. |
| 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). |
A type of igneous rock that is formed when molten magma from a volcano hardens.
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)