Acid test

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A acid test is in the literal sense a test with the fingernail and originally a ritual for testing an empty drinking vessel. Among carpenters there was and still is a custom under this term to skillfully drive a nail in with as little as 3 blows. Most of the time, the term acid test is now used in a figurative sense and in idioms in relation to an important or decisive test in which something or someone must now prove themselves in a critical case - e.g. B. in "The first quarter of 2000 will be the acid test for manufacturers of regenerative energy systems" .

Acid test as a drinking ritual

In the oldest known meaning, the acid test is a drinking ritual for testing an empty drinking vessel by turning it with one hand so that any remaining content trickles onto the thumbnail of the other hand: it contains more than can fit on the nail , so the vessel is considered to have not been sufficiently empty and the sample is not passed. As a test of the drinking vessel with the accompanying slogan “This is how the ancients used to do it”, the word acid test is used for the first time in the court drinking regulations of Elector Christian II of Saxony . The drinking ritual is or was widespread in many European countries and is still particularly well known today in the tradition of student associations when it comes to drinking competitions, for example as an examination for the completion of a so-called “ beer boy ”.

The Latinized loan coinage based on the German word 'Nagel' gave rise to the English phrase “ drinking super-nagulum ” (English “ drinking on the nail ”) or “ drinking supernaculum ”. It is already documented towards the end of the 16th century by Thomas Nashe ( Pierce Penniless , 1592), who suspects the origin from France, and is later described by Isaac Disraeli ( Curiosities of Literature , 1791-1823), who instead, as for all vulgar drinking habits and the "barbaric" language elements brought in in connection with them, which originate from the northern countries. The acid test, which was also documented in the 12th century in the Latin phrase ad unguem ("to the acid test"), is attested in ancient Scandinavian languages .

Other meanings

The term nail test has recently also been transferred to other test methods with fingernails:

  • The direction of travel of paper is checked by pulling the paper through between the fingernails of the thumb and forefinger in both directions. The waves of different strengths on both show the running direction: the smoother edge is parallel to the running direction, the main fiber direction.
  • Paint drying: the nail is passed over a surface printed with printing inks . The surface of a "nail-hard" dried paint must not be damaged.
  • In medicine, the nail test can be used to get a quick impression of the patient's blood pressure . After pressure on a fingernail (preferably the thumb!), It should fill up with blood again within a few (one to two) seconds (thus regaining its pink color). If this is not the case, it can be used to determine whether the affected limb is low in blood pressure or insufficiently supplied (e.g. to check the blood flow after applying a bandage) (see also shock (medicine) ).
  • Knife grinders control the sharpness of the cutting edge by setting the blade at an angle on their (thumb) nail. If the knife doesn't slip because it cut its nail, it has passed the acid test. In order to protect the nails of the grinder, the blade is also checked with a metal ring on which it is pressed. If the cutting edge bulges, the acid test is passed.
  • Metallurgy : The heavy metal lead is so soft that you can scratch it with your fingernail; In this way, this acid test can be used to check whether a metal could be lead or tin or zinc or bismuth.
  • Gramophone needles, which as a rule can only be used to play a single side of the record, are checked for previous use by pulling them over the fingernail with a rotating movement. The rounded conical tip of a fresh needle leaves no scratches, whereas a used needle leaves clear scratch marks on the fingernail.

literature

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ duden.de
  2. ↑ Freiepresse.de
  3. ↑ Wissen.de
  4. ↑ Gundolf Keil : "The best advice is the icker toe can against genomen vte platearise". References to Ypermans Medicine. In: Geneeskunde in nederlandstalige teksten tot 1600. Koninklijke Academie voor Geneeskunde van België, Brussels 2012 (2013), ISBN 978-90-75273-29-8 , pp. 93-137; here: p. 113 with note 120.
  5. ↑ Lutz Röhrich : The great lexicon of the proverbial sayings . 3 volumes, Freiburg im Breisgau 1991–1992; Reprints there in 1994 and 2003; Volume 2, 1992, p. 1073.