1882, transitive (intransitive use attested from 1919), back-formation from adsorption "condensation of gases on the surfaces of solids" (1882), coined in German from ad- + -sorption, abstracted from absorption and representing Latin sorbere "to suck" (see absorb). Related: Adsorbent; adsorption.

Canadian province, founded in 1882 and named for Princess Louise Caroline Alberta, fourth daughter of Queen Victoria, wife of the governor general, John Douglas Sutherland Campbell, Marquess of Lorne. She was named for her father, Prince Albert.

"disease of alcohol addiction," by 1882, from alcohol + -ism, or else from Modern Latin alcoholismus, coined in 1852 by Swedish professor of medicine Magnus Huss to mean what we now would call "alcohol poisoning, effects of excessive ingestion of alcohol." In earlier times, alcohol addiction would have been called habitual drunkenness or some such term.

instrument for measuring the strength of electric currents, 1882, from ampere + -meter.

"ethically indifferent," 1882, a hybrid formed from Greek-derived a- "not" (see a- (3)) + moral, which is from Latin. Apparently coined by Robert Louis Stevenson as a differentiation from immoral.

1882, in the electrical sense, from arc (n.). Meaning "to move in an arc" is attested by 1940. Related: Arced; arcing.

1882, name on a patent taken out by Charles F. Zimmermann of Philadelphia, U.S.A., for an improved type of harp, an instrument considerably different from the modern autoharp, which is actually a chord zither, and was invented about the same time by K.A. Gütter of Markneukirchen, Germany, who called it a Volkszither. See auto- + harp (n.).

1882, agent noun from bash (v.).

type of trousers, 1882, from bell (n.) + bottom (n.). Distinguished in the late 1960s from flares by the shape of the expanded part (flares straight, bell-bottoms of inverted cup-shape, like a bell).

1882, American English, shortened and altered form of bicycle (n.). As a verb by 1895. Related: Biked; biking.