[ad. med.L. antimōnium, of unknown origin, used by Constantinus Africanus of Salerno (Chaucer’s ‘cursed monk, daun Constantyn,’ Merch. T., 566), in end of 11th c., whence also in all the mod. langs.
Prob., like other terms of alchemy, a corruption of some Arabic word, refashioned so as to wear a Gr. or L. aspect—perhaps, as has been suggested, of the Arabic name uthmud, othmod, itself, latinized as athimodium, atimodium, atimonium, antimonium. The earlier form of the Arab. is ithmid, in which Littré suggests an adaptation (quasi isthimmid) of Gr. στίμμιδ-α variant of στίμμι, whence also L. stibium. If this conjecture be substantiated, antimonium and stibium will be transformations of the same word. ‘Popular etymology’ has analyzed Fr. antimoine as ἀντί + moine against the monks (‘monks’-bane’), and, as usual in such cases, supported the derivation by an idle tale (see Johnson), making the name originate (more than 400 years too late) with the chemist Basil Valentine, in end of 15th c.]
1. One of the elementary bodies, a brittle metallic substance, of bright bluish-white color and flaky crystalline texture. Its metallic characteristics are less pronounced than those of the metals generally; and it forms the fourth member of the natural series nitrogen, phosphorus, arsenic, antimony, bismuth, and some others, which are in different combinations triads and pentads. Symbol Sb (Stibium).
a. Alchem. and Pharm. Originally applied to the native trisulphide (called also gray antimony, or Stibnite; or when calcined and powdered, crude or black antimony), the στίμμι, στίβι, πλατυόφθαλμον, stibium of the ancients, and al-koḥ’l of the Arabs, used to stain the eyelids (see ALCOHOL); the antimonium, proteus, leo ruber, plumbum nigrum, lupus metallorum of the alchemists.
Butter of Antimony, an old name of the trichloride, ‘a translucent fatty mass’; Crocus of Antimony, an impure sulphide of antimony and sodium, formed as a scoria in smelting antimony; Flowers of Antimony, crystals of the trioxide formed when the metal is sublimed; Glass of Antimony, an oxy-sulphide fused; Saffron of Antimony = Red Antimony (see 2).
1477. Norton, Ord. Alch., in Ashm. 1652, iii. 39. Is Antimony, Arsenick, Honey, Wax and Wine.
1585. Lloyd, Treas. Health, D ij. A lyke vertue hath Antimonium, receyuyd wyth water.
1605. Timme, Quersit., xiii. 58. From this tree of Saturne springeth antimony, as the first branch of the stock which the phylosophers cal their magnesia.
1646. Sir T. Browne, Pseud. Ep., 53. Stibium or glasse of Antimony, appears somewhat red in glasse, but in its powder yellow.
1689. Gazophyl. Angl., Antimony, a famous Mineral amongst Chymists… It certainly comes from the Arab Atimad, signifying the same.
1751. Chambers, Cycl., Antimony is what we properly call a semi-metal, being a fossil substance composed of some undetermined metal, combined with a sulphurous and stony substance. Sometimes there are veins of a red or golden colour intermixed, from which it is called male antimony; that without them being denominated female.
b. Chem. The simple element. (Called by earlier chemists Regulus of Antimony.)
1788. Howard, Encycl., 133. Pure regulus of antimony is a bright semi-metal resembling tin or dusky silver. It is one of the lightest of the metallic bodies.
1812. Davy, Chem. Philos., 400. Basil Valentine is the first chemist who has described the process of extracting antimony from the sulphuret, though it does not appear that he was the inventor of this process.
1866. Ruskin, Ethics of Dust, 77. Sulphide of antimony … looks like mere purple wool, but it is all of purple needle crystals.
1875. Ure, Dict. Arts, I. 196. Native Antimony is a mineral of a tin-white colour and streak, and of a metallic lustre.
1879. Academy, 27 Dec., 467/1. The author [A. Wurtz] asserts that although antimony is usually regarded as a metal, it must, in a true chemical classification, find its place by the side of arsenic, phosphorus, and nitrogen.
2. with qualifications: Arsenical Antimony, the mineral Allemontite; Gray Antimony, the native sulphide of antimony, called as a mineral Stibnite or Antimonite; Red Antimony, the mineral Kermesite, a compound of the oxide and sulphide; White Antimony, antimony trioxide, the mineral Valentinite; Sulphurated Antimony, the sulphide with a small admixture of the oxide, used in medicine; Tartarated Antimony, tartar emetic.
3. attrib., as in Antimony oxide, sulphide, ores, etc., spec. Antimony blende = Red Antimony; Antimony bloom = White Antimony; Antimony glance = Gray Antimony (see 2); Antimony ochre, the mineral Cervantite; Antimony vermillion, a red pigment precipitated from an antimonial solution.
1860. Piesse, Lab. Chem. Wonders, 80. The antimony mines are chiefly in Hungary, Transylvania and Germany.
1863. Watts, Dict. Chem., I. 311. Antimony is found in combination with oxygen, viz. as trioxide, in the form of antimony bloom, white antimony, or Valentinite, Sb2O2, and as tetroxide, antimony ochre or Cervantite, Sb2O4.
1875. Ure, Dict. Arts, I. 195. Antimony Glance … sometimes occurs compact, but usually in very long prismatic or acicular crystals, or in a fibrous form.
