sorb

Etymology 1

Borrowed from Middle French sorbier (the tree), sorbe (the fruit), from Latin sorbus (the tree), sorbum (the fruit). See service tree.

noun

1. The service tree, Sorbus domestica.
2. Any of various related trees, including the wild service tree, S. torminalis, and the rowan, S. aucuparia.
3. The fruit of any of these trees, especially of the service tree.

Etymology 2

Ultimately from Latin sorbeo, sorbere.

verb

1. (chemistry) To absorb or adsorb.
   1971, E. K. Duursma, M. G. Gross, Chapter Six: Marine Sediments and Radioactivity, National Research Council (U.S.) Committee on Oceanography Panel on Radioactivity in the Marine Environment, Radioactivity in the marine environment, page 148, In sediments with large cation exchange capacities, as calculated from the mineral composition (Duursma and Eisma, unpublished), the radionuclides were somewhat more strongly sorbed (Figure 2).
   The exchange of pesticide compounds between aqueous solution and the sorbed phase in soils is not instantaneous. 2005, J. E. Barbash, “The Geochemistry of Pesticides”, in Barbara Sherwood Lollar, editor, Treatise on Geochemistry 9: Environmental Geochemistry, Second Edition, page 548
   The quantity sorbed is often found to be well represented by the combination of a compartment exhibiting linear, reversible sorption and a compartment that exhibits nonlinear and thermodynamic irreversib[l]e sorption. 2007, Danny D. Reible, “Chapter 21: Contaminant Processes in Sediments”, in Marcelo H. García, editor, Sedimentation Engineering: Processes, Management, Modeling, and Practice, page 966