effloresce \EF-luh-res\, verb:
1. To burst into bloom; blossom.
2. In chemistry, to change either throughout or on the surface to a mealy or powdery substance upon exposure to air, as a to change either throughout or on the surface to a mealy or powdery substance upon exposure to air, as a crystalline substance through loss of water of crystallization.
Do I, from scholar, effloresce into literary man, author by profession?
-- Sir Edward Bulwer Lytton, The Caxtons; A Family Picture
Her leaves do not expand, or her flower-buds effloresce, unless sure of a quantum suff of sunshine.
-- Mrs. Gore (Catherine Grace Frances), Cecil: Or, The Adventures of Coxcom: A Novel
Effloresce combines the Latin roots ex-, "out of", and florescere, "to blossom."
