Iolite, ī′o-līt, n. a transparent gem which presents a violet-blue colour when looked at in a certain direction. [Gr. ion, violet, lithos, stone.]
Ion, ī′on, n. one of the components into which an electrolyte is broken up on electrolysis—the Anion, the electro-negative component, chemically attacking the anode, and the Cation, the electro-positive component, the cathode. [Gr. iōn, pr.p. of ienai, to go.]
Ionic, ī-on′ik, adj. relating to Ionia in Greece: denoting an order in architecture distinguished by the ram's-horn volute of its capital—also Iō′nian.—vs.t. Ion′icize, I′onize.—ns. I′onism; I′onist.—Ionic dialect, the most important of the three main branches of the ancient Greek language (Ionic, Doric, Æolic), marked by greater softness and smoothness, the effect of its rich vowel system. Homer's Iliad is written in Old, the history of Herodotus in New Ionic: the Attic of Thucydides and Sophocles is its later form; Ionic mode (see Mode); Ionic school, a name given to the representative philosophers of the Ionian Greeks, such as Thales, Anaximander, Anaximenes, Heraclitus, Anaxagoras, who debated the question what was the primordial constitutive principle of the cosmical universe.
Iota, ī-ō′ta, n. a jot: a very small quantity or degree.—ns. Iot′acism, It′acism, the conversion of other vowel sounds into that of iota (Eng. ē), as in modern Gr. of η, υ, ει, η, οι, υι; It′acist. [Gr., the smallest letter in the alphabet, corresponding to the English i.]
I O U, ī′ō′ū′, n. a memorandum of debt given by a borrower to a lender, requiring no stamp, but to be holograph, dated, and addressed to some person.
Ipecacuanha, ip-e-kak-ū-an′a, n. the name both of a very valuable medicine and of the plant whose root produces it—used as an emetic. [Brazilian, 'smaller roadside sick-making plant.']
Ipomæa, ip-ō-mē′a, n. a genus of nat. ord. Convolvulaceæ. [Gr. ips, a worm, homoios, like.]
Iracund, ī′ra-kund, adj. (Carlyle) angry. [L.]
Irade, i-rä′de, n. a written decree of the Sultan of Turkey.
Iranian, ī-rān′i-an, adj. and n. of or pertaining to Iran, Persia: a branch of the Indo-European or Aryan tongues, including Persian, Zend, Pehlevi, and Parsi: an inhabitant of Iran.—Also Iran′ic.