torrefy

[prettygoodword]

torrefy or torrify (TAWR-uh-fai, TOR-uh-fai) - v., to dry or roast with fire, parch, scortch; in particular: a) (pharm.) to dry or parch (drugs) on a heated plate; b) (mining) to roast (ores) to evaporate volatiles.


The Latin root (taken on around 1600) is torrefacere, to make dry or hot, equivalent to torre-, stem form of torrēre, to dry up/parch/scorch + facere, to make/cause. Given the sense of intense heat that I'm getting from this, despite the pharmacological use probably being not all that hot, I don't think the kitchen toaster quite counts as a torrefier (or even a torrefrier).

---L.

Comments

[full_metal_ox]

That has potential as a hyperbolic weather term.

[prettygoodword]

It does, though using it might make people think you're riffing off the "torrid" zone.

[full_metal_ox]

Which wouldn’t be misleading, given the common root. (In the strict technical sense, I’m not quite in the Torrid Zone, the Tropic of Cancer being a couple degrees further south; Lahaina Noon ain’t happening around here.)

[ranunculus]

I hadn't thought of the term "parch" for years. Mom used to use it as a synonym for drying food, especially things like grains.

[prettygoodword]

That’s one of the usual contexts I think of for parched, along with throats and deserts.

[de_eekhoorn]

In French, roasted coffee is sold as café torréfié.

[prettygoodword]

Ah ha!