pseudoair

English

Etymology

From pseudo- +‎ air.

Pronunciation

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Noun

pseudoair (uncountable)

1. An artificially created gas that mimics air.
   • 1942 January, E[dward] E[lmer] Smith, “Second Stage Lensmen”, in Astounding Science Fiction, volume 28, number 5, New York, N.Y.: Street and Smith Publications, page 99:

     […] in which the air or pseudoair is thick and viscous; in which the only substance common to both sets of dimensions and thus available for combat purposes is a synthetic material so treated and so saturated as to be of enormous mass and inertia.

   • 1980 August, H. Okamoto, H. Obayashi, T. Kudo, “Carbon monoxide gas sensor made of stabilized zirconia”, in Solid State Ionics, volume 1, numbers 3–4, Amsterdam: Elsevier, →DOI, →ISSN, →OCLC, page 319:

     One electrode is a Pt electrode exposed directly to a sample gas, while the other is a Pt pseudoair electrode which is covered with a CO oxidation catalyst.

   • 2005, SIAM Journal on Scientific Computing:

     The two idealized test gases could be considered pseudoair and pseudohelium; both follow the gamma-law and have the same specific heat ratio.

   • 2015, Alex Hansen, Dying in Reverse:

     There was a brief burst of disorientation, nausea and vertigo, followed by a second rush of pseudo-air, and then I was standing.

2. A false appearance or seeming.
   • 1945, Lancer - Volume 2, page 6:

     That is to say, he talks a man's language without any of the pseudoair of condescension that confuses the non-articulate.

   • 1964, E. Malcolm Collins, Angel Blood, page 169:

     She now exuded a pseudoair of sanctimony and sophistication.