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hircic acid

hircic acid noun: a type of oily acid (a mixture rich in capric- and caproic acids) made from mutton suet, having an odor similar to that of a goat, used in the early days of the production of soap, and in soup-making.

Noun

hircic acid (uncountable)

  1. (historical) A type of oily acid (a mixture rich in capric- and caproic acids) made from mutton suet, having an odor similar to that of a goat, used in the early days of the production of soap, and in soup-making.
    • Hircic acid is the odorous principle of soap, made of mutton suet, and it exists in so very small quantity....Its smell resembles that of a goat1824, Walter Scott, The Edinburgh Annual Register - 1823
    Synonyms:
    hircin

Synonyms of hircic acid

Origin of hircic acid

Named by Michel Eugène Chevreul, a French chemist. First use in 1823

Questions about hircic acid

What does hircic acid mean?
Hircic acid means a type of oily acid (a mixture rich in capric- and caproic acids) made from mutton suet, having an odor similar to that of a goat, used in the early days of the production of soap, and in soup-making.
What part of speech is hircic acid?
Hircic acid is a noun.

Words near hircic acid in the dictionary

  1. hircarrah
  2. hircarrahs
  3. hircarras
  4. hircars
  5. hircic
  6. hircic acid
  7. hircin
  8. hircine
  9. hircinous
  10. hircismus
  11. hircocervus

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: hircic acid (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

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