mercury

From Mercury.

• (UK) IPA^(key): /ˈməː.kjʊ.ɹi/
• (US) enPR: mûr'kūrē, IPA^(key): /ˈmɝkjəɹi/

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mercury (countable and uncountable, plural mercuries)

1. A metal.
   1. A silvery-colored, toxic, metallic chemical element, liquid at room temperature, with atomic number 80 and symbol Hg. [from 14th c.]
   2. (sciences, historical) One of the elemental principles formerly thought to be present in all metals. [from 15th c.]
   3. (with definite article) Ambient pressure or temperature (from the use of mercury in barometers and thermometers). [from 17th c.]

      The mercury there has averaged 37.6C, 2.3C above the February norm.

   4. (obsolete) Liveliness, volatility. [17th-18th c.]
      • (Can we date this quote?) Bishop Burnet

        He was so full of mercury that he could not fix long in any friendship, or to any design.

2. A plant.
   1. An annual plant, annual mercury (Mercurialis annua), formerly grown for its medicinal properties; French mercury, herb mercury. [from 14th c.]
      • 1653, Nicholas Culpeper, The English Physician Enlarged, Folio Society 2007, p. 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.

   2. A similar edible plant, Chenopodium bonus-henricus, otherwise known as English mercury or allgood. [from 15th c.]
   3. (US, regional) The poison oak or poison ivy. [from 18th c.]

• azoth (in alchemy)
• hydrargyrum (in medical and sometimes chemical use)
• quicksilver (not in technical use)

• mercaptan
• Mercury

• “Mercury” in David Barthelmy, Webmineral Mineralogy Database, 1997–.
• “mercury”, in Mindat.org‎, Hudson Institute of Mineralogy, accessed 29 August 2016.

mercury

1. Alternative form of mercurie

• “Mercuri(e (n.)” in MED Online, Ann Arbor, Mich.: University of Michigan, 2007, retrieved 13 June 2018.