Forms: 5 innamyl, 6 inamel(l, enamell, 7 enammel, 7– enamel. [f. ENAMEL v.; the etymological senses are ‘means of enamelling,’ ‘process or result of enamelling’; the former includes the sense of AMEL sb., which became obs. in 18th c.]
1. A semi-transparent or opaque composition of the nature of glass, applied by fusion to metallic surfaces, either to ornament them in various colors, or to form a surface for encaustic painting; also (in 19th c.) used as a lining for culinary vessels, etc.
1463. in Bury Wills (1850), 35. A ruby with iiij labellys of white innamyl.
1586. T. B., La Primaud. Fr. Acad., I. (1594), 208. All works of gold, silver, and inammell.
1662. Evelyn, Chalcogr. (1769), 44. Silver, to fill with a certain encaustic or black enamel.
1712. trans. Pomet’s Hist. Drugs, I. 193. Being finely ground, it is used by the Goldsmiths for Enamel.
1837. Disraeli, Venetia, I. ii. (1871), 5. Wild hyacinths … spread like patches of blue enamel.
1875. Ure, Dict. Arts, I. 277. The enamel of these saucepans is quite free from lead.
b. fig.; formerly with notion of an additional or perfecting adornment; now chiefly with reference to the hardness and polish of enamel.
a. 1680. S. Charnock, in Spurgeon, Treas. Dav., Ps. cxxxv. 13. Unchangeableness is the thread that runs through the whole web; it is the enamel of all the rest.
1678. Jer. Taylor, Serm., Ded. Those Truths … are the enamel and beauty of our Churches.
1825. Macaulay, Milton, Ess. (1851), I. 14. None of the hard and brilliant enamel of Petrarch in the style.
1858. Hawthorne, Fr. & It. Jrnls., II. 35. A genuine love of painting and sculpture … formed a fine and hard enamel over their character.
c. A glassy ‘bead’ formed by the blowpipe.
d. In recent use applied to any composition employed to form a smooth hard coating on any surface (e.g., on pottery, wood, leather, paper, etc.). Cf. ENAMEL v. 2.
2. Phys. [after Fr. émail.] The substance that forms the hard glossy coating of teeth; the similar substance forming the coating of the bony scales of ganoid fishes.
1718. J. Chamberlayne, Relig. Philos. (1730), I. iii. § 2. The Teeth are surrounded with a hard Substance … the Enamel.
1782. A. Monro, Anatomy, 114. Each tooth is composed of its cortex, or enamel, and an internal bony substance.
1847. Carpenter, Zool., § 586. Fishes of this order [Ganoidians] are covered by angular scales, composed internally of bone, and coated with enamel.
1863. Lond. Rev., 10 Jan., 35/2. To nations good manners are what modesty is to chastity, or enamel to the teeth.
1873. Mivart, Elem. Anat., vii. 250. The enamel is the hardest structure in the human body, and almost entirely a mineral, containing but two per cent. of animal substance.
3. An artistic work executed in enamel; an enamel-painting.
1861. Sat. Rev., 7 Sept., 253. The leather drinking-cup, helmet, and enamels, bespeak a thegn of high rank.
1863. Sir G. Scott, Glean. Westm. Abb., 61. The execution of these enamels is truly exquisite.
1865. Reader, March, 278/2. Henry Bone … for a single enamel … is said to have received 2,200 guineas.
4. transf. (poet. and rhetorical) Applied to any smooth and lustrous surface-coloring (sometimes with added notion of varied colors); esp. to verdure or flowers on the ground.
1600. Fairfax, Tasso, V. xciv. 74 (J.). Downe from her eies welled the pearles round, Vpon the bright Ennamell of her face.
1665. Boyle, Occas. Refl., IV. i. (1669), 187. The various and curious Enammel of the Meadows.
1814. Cary, Dante’s Inf., IV. 113. On the green enamel of the plain Were shown me the great spirits.
1847. Emerson, Poems, Each & All, Wks. (Bohn), I. 399. The bubbles of the latest wave Fresh pearls to their enamel gave.
1864. Skeat, trans. Uhland’s Poems, 51. Leaf’s enamel, blossom’s beauty.
5. attrib. and Comb., as enamel-colo(u)r, -lining, -manufactory, -painting, -plate, powder, work; also enamel-kiln, a kiln for firing porcelain that has been printed on the glaze; enamel-painting, the production of a picture by fusing vitrifiable colors laid on a metal surface; enamel-paper, paper covered with a glazed metallic coating. Also (in dental anatomy), enamel-cell, one of the cells of the enamel-organ, sometimes called collectively ‘enamel-membrane’; enamel-cuticle, that which covers the outer surface of the enamel; enamel-germ, a portion of thickened epithelium, which afterwards develops into the enamel-organ.
1799. G. Smith, Laboratory, I. 114. To prepare the flux for *enamel-colours.
1881. Porcelain Wks. Worcester, 30. Its true character is revealed after it has passed through the *enamel kiln.
1884. Daily News, 24 July, 6/3. The *enamel linings of cooking utensils used in the Royal Navy.
1754. Bp. Pococke, Travels (1889), II. 69. The china and *enamel manufactory at Battersea.
1878. T. Bryant, Pract. Surg., I. 558. Enamel developed from the *enamel organ.
1847. Ld. Lindsay, Chr. Art, I. Introd. 209. Miniature and *enamel painting.
1875. Ure, Dict. Arts, II. 272. All enamel paintings are in fact, done on either copper or gold.
1855. Owen, Skel. & Teeth, 267. The *enamel plates in the elephant’s grinder.
1875. Ure, Dict. Arts, II. 273. The *enamel powder is spread with a spatula.
1756–7. trans. Keysler’s Trav. (1760), II. 6. An *enamel-work of the ancient arms of Florence.
1879. Sir G. Scott, Lect. Archit., I. 312. Of enamel-work you have splendid relics in the monument of William de Valence.
