efflorescence

Meanings

1. The production of flowers.
2. Rapid flowering of a culture or civilisation etc.
3. The formation of a powdery surface on crystals, as a hydrate is converted to anhydrous form by losing loosely bound water of crystallization to the atmosphere.
4. An encrustation of soluble salts, commonly white, deposited on the surface of stone, brick, plaster, or mortar; usually caused by free alkalies leached from mortar or adjacent concrete as moisture moves through it.
5. An encrustation of soluble salts, deposited on rock or soil by evaporation; often found in arid or geothermal environments.
6. A redness, rash, or eruption on the skin.

Etymology

Borrowed from French efflorescence, from Latin efflōrēscō (from ex- (“out”) + flōrēscō (“to blossom”)) + -ence. By surface analysis, effloresce + -ence.