precipitant

From Old French precipitant, from Latin praecipitans, present participle of praecipitare (“to cast down headlong”), from praeceps (“head foremost, headlong”), from prae (“before”) + caput (“head”).

precipitant (comparative more precipitant, superlative most precipitant)

1. That falls headlong, or causes a headlong fall.
   • 1708, Philips, John, Cyder:

     They leave their little lives / Above the clouds, precipitant to earth.

2. Rash or impulsive.
   • 1656, Philophilus Parresiastes [pseudonym; Henry More], Enthusiasmus Triumphatus, or, A Discourse of the Nature, Causes, Kinds, and Cure, of Enthusiasme; […], London: […] J[ames] Flesher, […], →OCLC, paragraph 27, page 27:

     [T]heſe dreams the præcipitant and unskilfull are forvvard to conceit to be Repreſentations extraordinary and ſupernatural, vvhich they call Revelations or Viſions, of vvhich there can be no certainty at all no more then of a Dream.

     A noun use, meaning “people who are precipitant”.

3. Sudden or unexpected.
4. (chemistry) That causes precipitation.

• (that falls headlong): headlong, precipitate
• (rash or impulsive): heedless, hotheaded, impetuous; see also Thesaurus:reckless
• (sudden or unexpected): abrupt, precipitous, subitaneous; see also Thesaurus:sudden

precipitant (plural precipitants)

1. A substance that forms a precipitate when added to a solution.

• precipice
• precipitous
• precipitate
• precipitation

• precipitant in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, G. & C. Merriam, 1913
• “precipitant”, in The Century Dictionary […], New York, N.Y.: The Century Co., 1911, →OCLC.
• precipitant at OneLook Dictionary Search

precipitant

1. present participle of precipitar

From French précipitant.

precipitant m (plural precipitanți)

1. (chemistry) precipitate