Q&A: The origin of ‘acid test’

Each week here at the Australian Writers’ Centre, we dissect and discuss, contort and retort, ask and gasp at the English language and all its rules, regulations and ridiculousness. It’s a celebration of language, masquerading as a passive-aggressive whinge about words and weirdness. This week, testing times…

Q: Hi AWC, what does it mean to give something the “acid test”?

A: Good question. According to Macquarie Dictionary, an acid test in the figurative sense is “a rigorous test which conclusively establishes a person’s character, a product’s performance, or a held judgement”.

Q: Example?

A: Well, it’s anything you might do to prove something is what it says it is. For example, if something is said to be waterproof, you might say that “the real acid test would be submerging it in a swimming pool”.

Q: Is the pool filled with acid?

A: No, we’re still figurative. So it’s a pool of water.

Q: Riiight. Okay.

A: Think of it as an everyday experiment to prove something. The Cambridge Dictionary gives a great example of this: “I think that baking fresh croissants is the acid test for any establishment that claims to be a patisserie.”

Q: That reminds me of my friend Charlie. He used to work 18 hours a day as a pastry chef.

A: Oh! We know this one – it’s because he “kneaded the dough”, right?

Q: What?? His daughter had an incurable disease and they had to work hard to pay for the medical bills …

A: Oh, um. So sorry.

Q: Nah, kidding, it was the kneading dough joke!

A: Ugh. Shall we move on?

Q: Yep. So, the acid test of whether someone is serious about their New Year’s resolutions is to see if they’re still going three weeks later?

A: Yeah, that can work, although usually it’s something more immediate. 

Q: My goal for this year was to swim more, but I’m now scared that pools might be full of acid… 

A: It was just an example, calm down.

Q: But hang on, pools have chlorine in them! Isn’t that acid?

A: Actually, adding chlorine in liquid or solid form is alkaline – making a pool LESS acidic. It’s only chlorine gas that is acidic.  

Q: So is chlorine where this whole “acid test” saying comes from? 

A: Nope. Nothing to do with that or swimming pools at all. 

Q: Of course it isn’t…

A: Anyway, the original, literal acid test was indeed a chemical test, and it was first used by gold miners in the 1840s. 

Q: What a fun nugget of information!

A: Indeed. The point of an acid test was to identify actual gold versus other metals. This could be done using nitric acid to test if a mark would dissolve on the surface. If it passed two specific acid tests, it proved the mineral was actual gold – thanks to gold’s properties that make it resistant to corrosion and oxidation. 

Q: So how long was it before figurative “acid tests” popped up?

A: Almost immediately. It must be something to do with the idea of proving authenticity that appealed to the wordsmiths and advertisers of the day, as the first recorded use was in 1845. More than a century later, in the 1960s, “Acid Tests” also became the name of LSD parties in California.

Q: Groovy baaaby!

A: Oh, behave.

Q: So as a recap, an acid test is just a check that something is what it says it is, or does what it says it does.

A: That’s right – like testing something is real gold, this is simply a way of saying you’ll find out if it’s really what it claims to be.

Q: So is this similar to the “pub test”?

A: Not really. Whereas there are an infinite number of acid tests you might conduct to prove all sorts of things, there is just ONE pub test – an Australian term typically applied to politics.

Q: Explain?

A: A policy or decision would pass the pub test if an ordinary pub patron would understand it as fair were it to come up in conversation. 

Q: Example?

A: Let’s say there was a proposal to tax tall people an extra 10%. That’s the sort of thing that wouldn’t pass the test if it came up in casual conversation in the pub.

Q: I dunno, those giants do take up a lot more space…

A: Meanwhile, a politician might be said to pass the pub test if they seem friendly enough to have a beer with. A “person of the people”.

Q: Yardglass drinker and former PM, the late Bob Hawke then?

A: Yes, most certainly him.

Q: So a pub test is a measure of what Mr Everyday Joe at your local pub thinks about something or someone? 

A: That’s right.

Q: And the “smell test”?

A: If something doesn’t “pass the smell test” then it’s much like sniffing month-old milk from the fridge.

Q: Heeeey, it doesn’t say “expires”, it simply says “best before”!

A: Okay, well, much like drinking rancid milk, if something doesn't pass the smell test, it's not a good idea – something smells off about it. It’s also sometimes called the sniff test.

Q: A bit fishy!

A: That’s right. Same meaning.

Q: And yet, fish are high in fatty acids! We’ve come full circle with the acid test.

A: Cute. But they’re all quite different. An “acid test” is a particular way to prove or disprove something. A “pub test” is a gauge of popular opinion. And a “smell test” is simply a measure of whether something is a good idea or not.

Q: Any other fun tests?

A: Well, there’s the “duck test” in logic.

Q: What’s that?

A: It’s about making a reasonable assumption based on the absence of any conflicting information: “If it looks like a duck, swims like a duck, and quacks like a duck, then it's probably a duck.”

Q: I like that one.

A: And moviegoers might be familiar with the Bechdel Test.

Q: The what?

A: It’s a term that was coined by American cartoonist Alison Bechdel in 1985 in response to a trend she noticed in screenplays. In a movie, if two women can be on screen and talk about something OTHER than a man, then that film passes the Bechdel Test! 

Q: Wow. Do many films pass?

A: No, not many.

Q: Interesting.

A: And finally, you may have heard “litmus test” used. This also comes from an actual science lab test involving litmus paper that changes colour in the presence of an acid. So it probably comes as no surprise that when used figuratively, it has a similar meaning to…

Q: Acid test!

A: Yep. The Free Dictionary says that “a “litmus test” of the quality or success of a particular thing is an effective way of proving it or measuring it.” The subtle difference (versus “acid test”) is that this is more an indication rather than proof, such as a political poll providing a litmus test on how people might vote in an election.

Q: All very fascinating, but I need to run. A new patisserie just opened around the corner and I have a sudden urge to test its croissants…

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