[L.; = ‘lightning that strikes or sets on fire, a thunderbolt.’] A thunderbolt; thunder, esp. as the attribute of Jupiter.
1684. I. Mather, Remark. Provid. (1856), 79. Many have been of the opinion that there is a bolt of stone descending with the thunder; but that is a vulgar error, the fulmeen or thunder-bolt is the same with the lightning, being a nitro-sulphurious spirit.
1747. J. Spence, Polymetis, II. vi. 49. In his right hand … he grasps his fulmen; his thunder, as we are used to translate that word, improperly enough.
1812. Examiner, 25 May, 328/1. We recognise the … god … by his fulmen.
fig. a. 1856. Sir W. Hamilton (Ogilv.), Reasoning cannot I find such a mine of thought, nor eloquence such a fulmen of expression.
