quicksilver
English
editEtymology
editFrom Middle English quyk silver, quyksilver, quikselver, from Old English cwicseolfor (“quicksilver”, literally “living silver”) (see Latin argentum vivum) from its ability to move. See quick in the sense of "living". Cognate with Dutch kwikzilver, German Low German Quicksülver, German Quecksilber, Danish kviksølv, Norwegian Bokmål kvikksølv, Swedish kvicksilver. By surface analysis, quick (“living”) + silver.
Pronunciation
editNoun
editquicksilver (uncountable)
- The metal mercury.
- (loosely) An amalgam of mercury and tin applied to the backs of mirrors, quicksilvering.
Quotations
edit- For quotations using this term, see Citations:quicksilver.
Synonyms
edit- (the metal): mercury, hydrargyrum
Derived terms
editterms derived from quicksilver
Translations
editmercury
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amalgam used on mirrors
- The translations below need to be checked and inserted above into the appropriate translation tables. See instructions at Wiktionary:Entry layout § Translations.
Translations to be checked
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Adjective
editquicksilver (not comparable)
- Unpredictable, erratic or fickle; mercurial.
- 1978 August 19, Kevin Warren, “A Flawless Production”, in Gay Community News, volume 6, number 5, page 15:
- Summer is not the most auspicious season for theater in New York. Aside from a few certifiable Broadway hits, it is, in fact, a rather quicksilver commodity.
- 2012 April 29, Nathan Rabin, “TV: Review: THE SIMPSONS (CLASSIC): “Treehouse of Horror III” (season 4, episode 5; originally aired 10/29/1992)”, in (Please provide the book title or journal name)[1]:
- The idea of a merchant selling both totems of pure evil and frozen yogurt (he calls it frogurt!) is amusing in itself, as is the idea that frogurt could be cursed, but it’s really the Shopkeeper’s quicksilver shift from ominous doomsaying to chipper salesmanship that sells the sequence.
Translations
editunpredictable, erratic
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Verb
editquicksilver (third-person singular simple present quicksilvers, present participle quicksilvering, simple past and past participle quicksilvered)
- (transitive) To overlay with quicksilver.
- (transitive) To treat with quicksilver.
Further reading
edit- David Barthelmy (1997–2024) “Quicksilver”, in Webmineral Mineralogy Database.
- “quicksilver”, in Mindat.org[2], Hudson Institute of Mineralogy, 2000–2024.
- “quicksilver”, in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, Springfield, Mass.: G. & C. Merriam, 1913, →OCLC.
- William Dwight Whitney and Benjamin E[li] Smith, editors (1914), “quicksilver”, in The Century Dictionary: An Encyclopedic Lexicon of the English Language, revised edition, volumes IV (P–Simulant), New York, N.Y.: The Century Co., →OCLC.
Categories:
- English terms inherited from Middle English
- English terms derived from Middle English
- English terms inherited from Old English
- English terms derived from Old English
- English compound terms
- English 3-syllable words
- English terms with IPA pronunciation
- English terms with audio pronunciation
- English lemmas
- English nouns
- English uncountable nouns
- English adjectives
- English uncomparable adjectives
- English terms with quotations
- English verbs
- English transitive verbs
- en:Mercury (element)
- English adjective-noun compound nouns