mercury
See also: Mercury
English
editChemical element | |
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Hg | |
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Alternative forms
editEtymology
editFrom Middle English mercurie.
Pronunciation
edit- (UK) IPA(key): /ˈmɜː(ɹ)kjʊɹi/
- (US) enPR: mûr'kūrē, IPA(key): /ˈmɝkjəɹi/, /ˈmɝk(ə)ɹi/
Audio (US): (file)
Noun
editmercury (countable and uncountable, plural mercuries)
- (literally)
- A silvery-colored, toxic, metallic chemical element, liquid at room temperature, with atomic number 80 and symbol Hg. [from 14th c.]
- Synonyms: (in alchemy) azoth, (in medical and sometimes chemical use) hydrargyrum, (not in technical use) quicksilver
- (sciences, historical) One of the elemental principles formerly thought to be present in all metals. [from 15th c.]
- (with definite article) Ambient pressure or temperature (from the use of mercury in barometers and thermometers). [from 17th c.]
- The mercury there has averaged 37.6°C, 2.3°C above the February norm.
- 2022 June 16, Ashifa Kassam, “‘They’re being cooked’: baby swifts die leaving nests as heatwave hits Spain”, in The Guardian[1]:
- As the mercury climbed in recent days – hovering at about 42C in both Seville and Córdoba – volunteers in both cities started to assemble around swift colonies, gathering up as many of the dehydrated and undernourished chicks they could find.
- 2022 August 10, “How can we run trains when the heat is on?”, in RAIL, number 963, page 45, photo caption:
- Rail temperatures are checked at Manchester Piccadilly on July 18 - the first of two consecutive days in which the mercury rose above 38°C across large parts of England.
- (obsolete) Liveliness, volatility. [17th–18th c.]
- a. 1716 (date written), [Gilbert] Burnet, edited by [Gilbert Burnet Jr.], Bishop Burnet’s History of His Own Time. […], volume (please specify |volume=I or II), London: […] Thomas Ward […], published 1724, →OCLC:
- He was so full of mercury that he could not fix long in any friendship, or to any design.
- A silvery-colored, toxic, metallic chemical element, liquid at room temperature, with atomic number 80 and symbol Hg. [from 14th c.]
- Any of several types of plant.
- An annual plant, annual mercury (Mercurialis annua), formerly grown for its medicinal properties; French mercury, herb mercury. [from 14th c.]
- Synonym: mercurial
- 1653, Nicholas Culpeper, The English Physician Enlarged, Folio Society, published 2007, page 188:
- Towards the tops of the stalks and branches come forth at every joint in the male Mercury two small round green heads, standing together upon a short footstalk, which growing ripe are the seeds, not having any flower.
- Any plant of any species of the genus and the genus Mercurialis.
- A similar edible plant (Blitum bonus-henricus), otherwise known as English mercury or allgood. [from 15th c.]
- (US, regional) The poison oak or poison ivy. [from 18th c.]
- An annual plant, annual mercury (Mercurialis annua), formerly grown for its medicinal properties; French mercury, herb mercury. [from 14th c.]
Derived terms
edit- alkylmercury
- argental mercury
- black mercury (Toxicodendron radicans)
- cadmium mercury cell
- dichloromercury
- dimercury
- dimethylmercury
- dodecamercury
- dog's mercury (Mercurialis perennis)
- eka-mercury
- English mercury (Blitum bonus-henricus)
- ethylmercury
- fulminate of mercury
- hexamercury
- horn mercury
- mercurate
- mercurial
- mercuriate
- mercuriation
- mercuric
- mercuricals
- mercuriferous
- mercurify
- mercurio-syphilis
- mercurism
- mercurize
- mercuroan
- mercurochrome
- mercurocuprate
- mercurous
- mercury arc, mercury arc rectifier, mercury arc valve
- mercury barometer
- mercury bichloride, mercury dichloride
- mercury cadmium telluride
- mercury dichloride
- mercury fulminate
- mercury gilding
- mercury goosefoot (Blitum bonus-henricus)
- mercury lamp
- mercuryless
- mercury of life
- mercury perchloride
- mercury poisoning
- mercury pool
- mercury protochloride
- mercury rust
- mercury selenide
- mercury soap
- mercury spurge (Euphorbia mercurialina)
- mercury sulfide, mercury sulphide
- mercury switch
- mercury thermometer
- mercury-vapor lamp
- mercury vapor lamp, mercury vapour lamp
- mercury vapor pump, mercury vapour pump
- mercury vapor rectifier, mercury vapour rectifier
- mercury-vapour lamp
- mercury weed (Acalypha spp.)
- methylmercury
- methyl mercury
- millimeter of mercury
- millimetre of mercury
- nonmercury
- organomercury
- oxymercuration
- pentamercury
- phenylmercury
- radiomercury
- red mercury
- tetramercury
- three-seed mercury (Acalypha spp.)
- trimercury
- vegetable mercury
Related terms
editTranslations
editelement
|
ambient temperature
Mercurialis gen. et spp.
|
See also
editReferences
edit- “mercury”, in Lexico, Dictionary.com; Oxford University Press, 2019–2022.
Further reading
edit- David Barthelmy (1997–2024) “Mercury”, in Webmineral Mineralogy Database.
- “mercury”, in Mindat.org[2], Hudson Institute of Mineralogy, 2000–2024.
Middle English
editNoun
editmercury
- Alternative form of mercurie
Categories:
- en:Chemical elements
- English terms derived from Middle English
- English 3-syllable words
- English terms with IPA pronunciation
- English terms with audio pronunciation
- English lemmas
- English nouns
- English uncountable nouns
- English countable nouns
- en:Sciences
- English terms with historical senses
- English terms with usage examples
- English terms with quotations
- English terms with obsolete senses
- American English
- Regional English
- en:Mercury (element)
- English eponyms
- en:Goosefoot subfamily plants
- en:Liquids
- en:Metals
- en:Spurges
- en:Sumac family plants
- Middle English lemmas
- Middle English nouns