effloresce

Meanings

1. To burst into bloom; to flower.
2. Of something hidden: to come forth, to emerge; also, to reach full glory or power.
3. Senses relating to chemistry.
4. Of a substance: to change from being crystalline to powdery by losing water of crystallization.
5. Of a salt: to seep through some material (bricks, concrete, earth, rock, etc.) in a dissolved state, and then crystallize on a surface in a powdery form.
6. Of the surface of a material: to become covered with a powdery salt (as described in sense 3.2).

Etymology

From Latin efflōrēscere, present active infinitive of efflōrēscō (“to bloom, blossom; to flourish”) + -ere (suffix forming infinitives). Efflōrēscō is derived from ef- (variant of ex- (prefix meaning ‘away; out’)) + flōrēscō (“to blossom, flower; to begin to flourish or prosper”) (from flōreō (“to bloom, blossom, flower; to flourish, prosper”) (from flōs (“blossom, flower”) (ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *bʰleh₃- (“bloom, flower”)) + -scō (suffix forming verbs having the sense of beginning something)). By surface analysis, ef- + Latin flor- + -esce.