[a. F. bronze (16th c. in Littré), ad. It. bronzo ‘brass or bell-metal’ (Florio); whence also Sp. bronze, bronce. The origin of the It. is uncertain: Muratori, cited by Diez, thinks it formed from bruno ‘brown,’ through an intermediate *brunizzo, *bruniccio:—late L. brunitius ‘brownigh, brown-colored.’ But this is very doubtful phonetically. Diez also mentions Venetian bronza glowing coals, ‘perh. the Ger. brunst fire, burning, heat,’ as possibly connected.]
1. A brown-colored alloy of copper and tin, sometimes also containing a little zinc and lead. Formerly included under the term BRASS, q.v.; the name bronze was introduced for the material of ancient works of art, or perhaps rather for the works of art themselves: see sense 2.
The ratio of the constituents in ordinary bronze is about 8 or 9 parts of copper to 1 of tin; in bell-metal the proportion of tin is much greater. See BELL-METAL (A bronze currency was introduced in Great Britain instead of copper in 1860; but from traditional habit, a bronze coin is still called familiarly ‘a copper.’)
[1617. F. Moryson, Itin., I. II. iii. 170. The brasen Serpent … was of mixt mettall, vulgarly [i.e., in the vulgar Italian tongue] called di bronzo.]
1739. Gray, Lett., in Poems (1775), 49. Nymphs and tritons, all in bronxe.
1755. Johnson, Bronze (bronze Fr.) 1 Brass. 2 Relief or statue cast in brass.
1806. Drennan, Imit. Juvenal Sat., viii. in Poet. Register (1806), 131. With ancestry around you plac’d In bronze, or marble, porcelain or paste.
1835. W. Irving, Tour Prairies, 50. Like figures of monumental bronze.
1854. Scoffern, in Orr’s Circ. Sc., Chem. 492. Statue bronze contains only about two per cent. of tin, melted with ninety-one per cent. of copper, six per cent. of zinc, and one per cent. of lead.
1868. G. Stephens, Runic Mon., I. 74. The Age of Bronze follows the Stone Age and precedes the Age of Iron.
1886. Pall Mall Gaz., 13 Feb., 10/2. The prisoner … had in his possession 3s. 6d. in silver and 3s. 4d. in bronze.
b. Aluminium bronze: see ALUMINIUM. Phosphor-bronze: an alloy consisting of bronze or copper with a small proportion of phosphorus added, which increases its tenacity.
1875. Ure, Dict. Arts, III. 555. Experiments on the capacity of phosphor-bronze to resist the oxidation of sea-water.
1878. Print. Trades Jrnl., xxv. 10. In the construction of this beautiful engine steel and phosphor-bronze are used.
2. (with pl.) A work of art, as a statue, etc., executed in bronze.
a. 1721. Prior, Alma, III. How little gives thee joy or pain; A print, a bronze, a flower, a root.
1841. W. Spalding, Italy & It. Isl., I. 217. Its bronzes and bas-reliefs are also very important.
1871. Morley, Crit. Misc. (1886), I. 67. Gay with the clocks, the bronzes, the tapestries, of the ruined court.
† 3. fig. Impudence, unblushingness. (Cf. brass.)
1728. Pope, Dunc., III. 199. Imbrown’d with native bronze, lo! Henley stands.
1768. Goldsm., Good-n. Man, II. i. Mrs. Croaker. ‘You don’t want assurance when you come to solicit for your friends.’ Lofty. ‘O, there indeed I’m in bronze.’
1823. Byron (title), The Age of Bronze.
† b. A gull, a cheat. Obs. slang. Cf. BRONZE v. 4.
1817. Blackw. Mag., I. 137. This is not a ‘bronze’—no story of fancy.
4. (More fully bronze powder: see 7): A metallic powder (usually brass, copper or tin) used in painting, printing, and the like.
1753. Chambers, Cycl. Supp., Bronze, also denotes a colour prepared by the colourmen of Paris.
1846. Print. Appar. Amateurs, 47. Printing in gold, silver and copper bronzes.
1854. Brandeis, Acc. New York Exhib., in Ure, Dict. Arts, I. 539. Bronzes, or more correctly metallic powders resembling gold dust, were invented in 1648, by a monk, at Furth, in Bavaria.
1875. Ure, Dict. Arts, I. 540. Vanadate of copper has … been recommended as a new bronze.
5. A brown color like that of bronze.
1817. Byron, Beppo, xlv. The rich peasant-cheek of ruddy bronze.
6. attrib. or as adj. a. Made of bronze.
1839. Thirlwall, Greece, I. 237. The first bronze statue was probably much later than the age of Homer.
1857. Ruskin, Pol. Econ. Art, 23. Bronze crosses of honour.
1875. Jevons, Money (1878), 121. The bronze coinage.
b. Of the color of bronze, bronze-colored.
1828. Stark, Elem. Nat. Hist., II. 274. Legs spinous, of a shining black bronze-colour.
1872. C. King, Mountain. Sierra Nev., xiii. 276. Deep bronze foliage.
1883. Truth, 31 May, 768/2. Scarlet stockings and bronze boots.
7. Comb.: attrib. as bronze-smith; instrumental, as bronze-bound, -gleaming, -shod; adverbial, as bronze-golden, -purple; parasynthetic, as bronze-foreheaded; bronze age = bronze-period; bronze-gilt, made of bronze and covered with gilding (cf. silver-gilt); bronze-liquor, any liquor used for bronzing; bronze man (Archæol.), a man living in the bronze period; bronze period (Archæol.), the prehistoric period during which weapons, etc., were made of bronze, and which was preceded by the Stone Period, and succeeded by the Iron Period; bronze paint (see quot.); bronze powder = BRONZE 3; bronze-wing, a kind of pigeon (Phaps chalcoptera) found in Australasia.
1865. Lubbock, Preh. Times, 31. There are four principal theories as to the *Bronze age. Ibid. (1879), Sci. Lect., vi. 175. The Bronze Age … a period when the weapons were made almost entirely, and ornaments principally, of Bronze.
1851. Ruskin, Stones Ven., I. App. xvii. 393. Not all the tubular bridges nor engineering of ten thousand nineteenth centuries cast into one great *bronze-foreheaded century.
1877. W. Jones, Finger-ring L., 207. *Bronze-gilt Papal rings.
1882. Garden, 10 June, 399/2. Its *bronze-golden flowers.
1874. Sayce, Compar. Philol., iii. 114. The Etruscans may have been the *bronze-men of the Swiss lakes.
1851. D. Wilson, Preh. Ann. (1863), I. II. i. 319. The *Bronze Period.
1861. Sat. Rev., 7 Sept., 253. Belonging to the earliest or archaic bronze period.
1875. Ure, Dict. Arts, I. 539. *Bronze paint, commonly called gold paint, is made by mixing gold-coloured bronze powder with pure turpentine.
1846. Print. Appar. Amateurs, 47. The *bronze powder is then applied to each impression.
1880. Black, White Wings, xx. A strange *bronze-purple gloom.
1841. W. Spalding, Italy & It. Isl., I. 330. The guilds of tradesmen in Rome … comprehended the goldsmiths, the *bronzesmiths, the carpenters.
1859. H. Kingsley, G. Hamlyn, xxvi. (D.). You’ve no more fight in you than a *bronsewing.
