[OE. cwic seolfor = OHG. quecsilbar, -silper (MHG. quec-, kecsilber, G. quecksilber), Du. kwikzilver, ON. kviksilfr (Sw. qvicksilfver, Da. kvæg-, kviksölv), after L. argentum vivum (Pliny): see QUICK a. and SILVER.]
1. The metal mercury, so called from its liquid mobile form at ordinary temperatures.
c. 1000. Sax. Leechd., II. 356. Wiþ maʓan wærce rudan sæd & cwic seolfor.
c. 1386. Chaucer, Can. Yeom. Prol. & T., 269. The firste spirit quyksiluer called is.
1436. Pol. Poems (Rolls), II. 160. Commodytes … commynge out of Spayne,… Bene fygues … Saffron, quicksilver.
1555. Eden, Decades, 335. By the helpe of quickesyluer it is drawen owt.
1625. N. Carpenter, Geog. Del., II. v. (1635), 71. Quick-siluer … will gather it selfe to a round body.
1669. Worlidge, Syst. Agric. (1681), 309. This Column of Quick-silver in the Tube, is supported by the weight of the Air Ambient.
1782. Cowper, Progr. Err., 21. Like quicksilver, the rhetoric they display Shines as it runs, but grasped at slips away.
1825. J. Neal, Bro. Jonathan, I. 326. A profusion or little raindrops; like spattered quicksilver.
1870. Yeats, Nat. Hist. Comm., 360. Quicksilver is met with pure in minute globules, but for the purposes of commerce it is obtained from one of its ores,—cinnabar, a red sulphide of mercury.
2. Used allusively. a. with reference to the quick motion of which the metal is capable.
1562. J. Heywood, Prov. & Epigr. (1867), 165. She is quycke syluer.
1622. Bacon, Hen. VII., 192. Perkin (who was made of Quick-silver, which is hard to hold or imprison) began to stirre.
1820. Scott, Abbot, xix. Thou hast quicksilver in the veins of thee to a certainty.
1889. Boy’s Own Paper, 17 Aug., 730/3. I … had come off the journey with my veins full of quicksilver.
b. with ref. to its use in mirrors (see the vb.).
1851. Robertson, Serm., Ser. II. xii. (1864), 166. The dull quicksilver of their own selfishness behind the glass.
3. attrib. and Comb. a. attributive, in senses ‘consisting of, containing, pertaining to, etc., quicksilver,’ as quicksilver bath, battery, earth, field, globe, mine, ore, plaster, ship, tank, valve, water, etc.
1552. Huloet, Quyckesyluer earth, antrax.
a. 1631. Donne, Poems, Apparition. In a cold Quicksilver bath.
1685. Lond. Gaz., No. 1996/1. The Quick-Silver Ships may be expected this month at Cadiz.
1751. Mrs. Delany, Autobiog. (1861), III. 53. Quick-silver-water is the most effectual remedy for worms.
1756–7. trans. Keysler’s Trav. (1760), IV. 152. Cinnabar or quicksilver ore.
1839. Marryat, Phant. Ship, iii. (1874), 25. In the centre of the ceiling hung a quicksilver globe, a common ornament in those days.
1877. Raymond, Statist. Mines & Mining, 19. A very important quicksilver-field is about to be opened in the far north. Ibid., 260. A … clever arrangement of quicksilver-tanks.
b. attrib. in sense ‘resembling quicksilver (in quickness of movement),’ as quicksilver mind, rebel, rogue, temper.
1655. Gurnall, Chr. in Arm., V. § 4 (1669), 94/1. Labour therefore in hearing the Word to fix thy quick-silver mind.
1676. W. Hubbard, Happiness of People, 29. These are Inquieta ingenia of Quick-silver tempers.
1796. Earl Balcarres, in Bryan Edwards, Proc. Maroon Negroes (1796), 35. Until such time as these quicksilver rebels are under lock and key.
1863. Cowden Clarke, Shaks. Char., xiv. 360. That prince of quicksilver rogues—Master Autolycus.
c. objective, and obj. genitive, as quicksilver-feeder, -fixation, -producing adj., -reduction, etc.
1834. Macaulay, Ess., Pitt (1887), 306. The periwig company, and the Spanish-jack-ass-company, and the quicksilver-fixation-company.
1877. Raymond, Statist. Mines & Mining, 19. Coming south from Trinity, the next quicksilver-producing locality … is in the Coast Range.
1882. Rep. Ho. Repr. Prec. Met. U.S., 507. A quicksilver feeder has been devised for feeding mercury to gold mills.
Hence Quicksilverish a., somewhat quicksilvery (hence Quicksilverishness); Quicksilvery a., of the nature of, resembling, quicksilver.
1611. Cotgr., Vif-Argentin, quicke-siluerie.
1829. Anniversary, Honeycomb & Bitter Gourd, 118. The flighty and quicksilvery youth of the parish.
1852. Mrs. Craik, Agatha’s Husband, II. i. 17. She had … a certain quicksilverishness of manner, jumping here there everywhere like mercury on a plate.
1891. T. Hardy, Tess (1900), 70/2. The quicksilvery glaze on the rivers and pools.
