Mer"cu*ry , v. t. To wash with a preparation of mercury. [Obs.]
B.
Jonson.
Mer"cu*ry (?), n. [L. Mercurius; akin to merx wares.]
1. (Rom. Myth.) A Latin god of commerce and gain; -- treated by the poets as
identical with the Greek Hermes, messenger of the gods, conductor of souls to the lower
world, and god of eloquence.
2.
(Chem.) A metallic
element mostly obtained by reduction from cinnabar, one of its ores.
It is a heavy, opaque, glistening liquid (commonly called
quicksilver), and
is used in barometers,
thermometers, etc. Specific gravity 13.6. Symbol Hg
(Hydrargyrum). Atomic weight 199.8. Mercury has a
molecule which consists of only one atom. It was
named by the alchemists after the god
Mercury, and designated by his symbol, &mercury;.
&fist; Mercury forms
alloys, called amalgams, with many metals, and is thus used in
applying tin foil to the backs
of mirrors, and in extracting gold and silver from their ores. It is poisonous, and is used in medicine in the free state as in blue pill, and in its
compounds as calomel, corrosive sublimate,
etc. It is the
only metal which is liquid at ordinary temperatures, and it solidifies at about -39° Centigrade
to a soft, malleable, ductile metal.
3. (Astron.)
One of the planets of the solar system, being the one nearest the sun, from
which its mean distance is about 36,000,000 miles. Its period is
88 days, and its diameter 3,000 miles.
4. A carrier of tidings; a newsboy; a messenger; hence, also, a newspaper. Sir J. Stephen. "The monthly Mercuries." Macaulay.
5. Sprightly or mercurial quality; spirit; mutability; fickleness. [Obs.]
He was so full of mercury that he could not
fix long in
any friendship, or to any design.
Bp. Burnet. 6. (Bot.) A plant (Mercurialis annua), of the Spurge
family, the leaves of which are sometimes used for spinach, in Europe.
&fist; The name is also
applied, in the United States, to certain climbing plants, some of which
are poisonous to the skin,
esp. to the Rhus Toxicodendron, or poison ivy.
Dog's mercury (Bot.),
Mercurialis perennis, a perennial plant differing from M. annua by having the
leaves sessile. --
English mercury
(Bot.), a kind of goosefoot formerly used
as a pot herb; - - called Good King Henry. -- Horn mercury (Min.),
a mineral chloride of mercury, having a semitranslucent,
hornlike appearance.
Hear it pronounced