mercurie

Noun

mercury (countable and uncountable, plural mercuries)

1. A silvery-coloured, metallic chemical element with the atomic number 80; it is liquid at room temperature, and toxic.
   • When therfore they perceaue a ſufficient quantitie of golde thus remaynynge on the tables, they gather it with diligence and put it in a tray or great ſhallowe dyſſhe of wod […] they beate or mixte (or amalgame it as they caule it) with Mercurie or quickſyluer, […]1555, Peter Martyr of Angleria [i.e., Peter Martyr d’Anghiera], “Of the Myne of Golde and the Qualitie therof in Particular”, in Rycharde Eden [i.e., Richard Eden], transl., The Decades of the Newe...

   Synonyms:

   azoth, hydrargyrum, quicksilver

2. Preceded by the: mercury (noun sense 1) as used in the column of a barometer or thermometer, its fall or rise thus indicating the decrease or increase of ambient pressure or temperature.
   • The mercury there has averaged 37.6°C, 2.3°C above the February norm.
3. (historical) A preparation containing mercury (noun sense 1), especially calomel (mercurous chloride) or corrosive sublimate (mercuric chloride), formerly used as a medicine to treat syphilis, etc.
   • [O]ur Cures vvere rendered tedious and unſucceſsful, […] vvhilſt their Bodies vvere purged vvith Catharticks vvithout Mercury. […] They are generally ſtrong if the party can bear them, viz. ſome Preparations of Mercury, as Turbish mineral. &c. or, Antimonial, as Crocus Metallor, in ſtronger Bodies...1676, Richard Wiseman, “The First Book. A Treatise of Tumours. Chapter II. Of the Remedies Generally Used in the Cure.”, in Severall Chirurgicall Treatises, London: […] E. Flesher and J. Macock, for...
4. (historical) One of the elemental principles formerly thought to be present in all metals.
5. (figuratively, obsolete) Liveliness, volatility.
   • Religion thou haſt none: thy Mercury / Has paſs'd though every Sect, or theirs through Thee.1682, [John Dryden], The Medall. A Satyre Against Sedition. […], Edinburgh: [s.n.], →OCLC, page 11
6. An annual plant, now generally called annual mercury (Mercurialis annua), chiefly native to central and southern Europe which was formerly grown for its medicinal properties; French mercury, herb mercury.
   • The herbe which is cõmunely [communely, i.e., commonly] called in engliſhe mercury hath nothyng to do wyth mercurialis, whereof I ſpake nowe. Let the Poticaries vſe thys mercury and let the commune mercury alone.1548, William Turner, “Mercurialis”, in The Names of Herbes in Greke, Latin, Englishe Duche & Frenche wyth the Commune Names that Herbaries and Apotecaries Use. […], London: […] [Steven Mierdman for]...

   Synonyms:

   mercurial

See all 19 meanings of mercury