Also 4 tartre, 5 tarter, -are, (6 tartarum, 7–8 tartarus). [a. F. tartre = Sp., Pg., It. tartaro, med.L. tartarum (tartharum), med.Gr. τάρταρον; perh. of Arabic origin: Simon of Genoa (fl. 1292), Synonima (ed. 1473), has ‘Tartar arabice, tartarum quod ex uino in lateribus uegetis generatur.’
But there is some doubt as to this, the usual Arabic term being durdl, from Pers. durd sediment, dregs; tartir, found in mod.Arabic lexicons from 1639, is held by Dozy to be borrowed from European langs. The med.L. tartarum appears in the Dictionarius of Joh. de Garlandia, c. 1225.]
1. Chem. Bitartrate of potash (acid potassium tartrate), present in grape juice, deposited in a crude form in the process of fermentation, and adhering to the sides of wine-casks in the form of a hard crust, also called argal or ARGOL, which in the crude state varies from pale pink to dark red, but when purified forms white crystals, which are cream of tartar.
(† In quot. c. 1425 applied to the dregs of malt liquor.)
c. 1386. Chaucer, Can. Yeom. Prol. & T., 260. Or Tartre, Alum glas, berme, wort and argoille.
1398. Trevisa, Barth. De P. R., XVI. xcix. (Tollem. MS.). Tartar is wyn drastes [tartarum est vini fæculentia], and like to a softe ston cleuynge harde to þe sides of þe tonnes.
c. 1425. trans. Arderne’s Surgery (E. E. T. S.), 49. Ffirst I made hym ane emplastre of tartare of ale, i.[e.]. dreggez.
c. 1550. Lloyd, Treas. Health, B vij. Wyne Lyes called Tartarum … menglid in oyle and Veniger is verye good.
1679. V. Alsop, Melius Inquir., Introd. 32. Like Tartar, [it] is so baked and crusted to the sides of the Vessel, that till you knock off the Hoops and take the frame in pieces, no Art of Man will free the Cask from a tang at least of the old mustiness.
1732. Arbuthnot, Rules of Diet, in Aliments, etc., 259. Small Wines with little Oil and much Tartar.
1797. Encycl. Brit. (ed. 3), IV. 495/2. The tartar of the white wines is of a greyish white colour, called white tartar; and that of red wine has a red colour, and is called red tartar.
1883. Hardwich’s Photogr. Chem. (ed. Taylor), 96. Tartaric Acid … is derived from a substance called Tartar, deposited from the juice of the Grape during fermentation. This Tartar is an Acid Tartrate of Potash.
b. Hence, ‘A generic name for salts of tartaric acid’ (Watts).
c. Commercially, applied not to the argol or original deposit, but to a product that has undergone partial purification: see quot.
1893. Thorpe, Dict. Applied Chem., III. 783. The crust is known as ‘argol,’ and when recrystallised produces ‘tartar,’ which by further crystallisation is converted into ‘cream of tartar,’ technically known as ‘cream.’
d. fig.
1590. Marlowe, 2nd Pt. Tamburl., IV. i. A soul Created of the massy dregs of earth, The scum and tartar of the elements.
a. 1631. Donne, Serm. (1649), II. xix. 153. Impatience in affliction … a leaven so kneaded into the nature of man, so innate a tartar, so inherent a sting.
1683. Burnet, trans. More’s Utopia, Pref. (1684), 4. Our Language has, like a rich Wine, wrought out its Tartar.
1824. Landor, Imag. Conv., Ld. Brooke & Sir P. Sidney. Desire of lucre…. It is the tartar that encrusts economy.
2. transf. Any calcareous or other incrustation deposited from a liquid upon bodies in contact with it. (With quot. 1605 cf. TARTARER, TARTAROUS 2.)
1605. Timme, Quersit., III. 161. of the congelations of these salts comes goutes … and diuers kinds of obstructions, according to the diuersitie of tartars and of salts which are ingendred and procreate to nature in our bodie.
1756–7. trans. Keysler’s Trav. (1760), III. 151. This water is impregnated with tartar, so that the bottom and pillars … are incrusted with it.
1789. Mrs. Piozzi, Journ. France, I. 427. [It] incrusted a stick with its tartar in two minutes.
b. spec. A deposit of calcium phosphate from the saliva, which tends to harden and concrete upon the teeth. (So F. tartre; cf. Ger. weinstein.)
1806. Med. Jrnl., XV. 30. We find that this coagulum has the greatest similarity with the tartar adhering to the teeth.
1822–34. Good’s Study Med. (ed. 4), I. 65. The teeth are always subject to be covered over with layers of an earthy material secreted as a constituent part of the saliva, and denominated tartar.
1897. Allbutt’s Syst. Med., IV. 743. The concretions of tartar that gather round the teeth.
3. Phrasal combinations:
a. Cream of tartar: see 1 and CREAM sb. 4; † magistery of tartar = vitriolated tartar: see b; † oil of tartar, old name for a saturated solution of potassium carbonate; † salt of tartar, an old name of potassium carbonate; spirit of tartar, the liquid obtained by dry distillation of tartar; it contains pyrotartaric acid and other substances.
1584. R. Scot, Discov. Witchcr., XIV. i. (1886), 295. These things are of necessitie to be used; namelie … claie made with horsse doong, mans haire, *oile of tartre, allum, glasse, woort, yest, argoll.
1660. Boyle, New Exp. Phys. Mech., xxiv. 189. As strong a solution of Salt of Tartar in fair Water as could be made (we having no Oyl of Tartar per deliquium at hand).
1706. Phillips, Oil of Tartar per Deliquium, the fixt Salt of Tartar dissolved by being expos’d to the Air in a Cellar, or other cool moist place.
1707. Curios. in Husb. & Gard., 67. Spirit of Vitriol and Oil of Tartar … mingled together, are surprizingly hot.
1646. Sir T. Browne, Pseud. Ep., 87. A pint of *salt of tartar exposed unto a moist aire untill it dissolve, will make far more liquor, or as some tearm it oyle, then the former measure will contain.
1794. Sullivan, View Nat., I. 339. Moisture drawn from it [the air] by dry salt of tartar, in such quantity, as to make the salt become intirely fluid.
1832. G. R. Porter, Porcelain & Gl., 83. Precipitating, with salt of tartar (sub-carbonate of potass).
1860. Mayne, Expos. Lex., *Spirit of Tartar, a name for pyrotartaric acid.
[1868. Watts, Dict. Chem., V. 402.]
b. † Chalybeate tartar, tartar chalybeated, potassio-ferric tartrate, C4H4K(FeO)O6; † regenerated tartar, acetate of potassium, C4H6O3 . K2O; † soluble tartar, neutral potassium tartrate, C4H4K2O6; also applied to ammonium potassium tartrate, C8H4(NH4)KO6; † vitriolatod tartar, tartar vitriolate, sulphate of potassium, K2SO4.
1727–41. Chambers, Cycl., s.v., Crystal, Crystal of tartar chalybeated, is when it is impregnated with the most dissoluble parts of iron.
1860. Mayne, Expos. Lex., s.v, Tartar, *Chalybeate Tartar..., a name for the Potassio-tartras ferri.
1753. Chambers, Cycl. Supp., s.v., The good effects of *regenerated tartar in the cure of obstructions of the bowels.
1860. Mayne, Expos. Lex., Regenerated Tartar, term for the Acetas potassæ.
1704. J. Harris, Lex. Techn., I. *Soluble Tartar, is made by boiling in 3 Pints of Water, 8 Ounces of Cream of Tartar, and 4 Ounces of the Fix’d Salt of Tartar.
1860. Mayne, Expos. Lex., Soluble Tartar, a term for the Tartras potassæ.
1704. J. Harris, Lex. Techn., I. *Tartar Vitriolate, is made by pouring Spirit of Vitriol on Oil of Tartar per Deliquium, by little and little.
1727–41. Chambers, Cycl., s.v., *Vitriolated Tartar, which some call Magistery of Tartar, is oil of Tartar mixed with rectified spirit of vitriol.
1820. T. Thomson, Syst. Chem., II. 435. Known by the name of vitriolated tartar, till the French chemists called it sulphate of potash … in 1787.
c. Tartar-emetic, † emetic tartar, common name in pharmacy of potassio-antimonious tartrate, C4H4K(Sb.O)O6 + 1/2H2O, a poisonous substance, used in medicine to excite vomiting. Hence Tartar-emeticize v. (nonce-wd.), trans. to dose with tartar-emetic.
1704. J. Harris, Lex. Techn., I. Tartar Emetick. See Emerick Tartar. Ibid., Emetick Tartar, is only Cream or Crystal of Tartar poudred and mixt with a quarter part of Crocus Metallorum, and … the Mixture … boil’d in an earthen Pan in a sufficient quantity of Water, for about 8 or 9 Hours.
1758. J. S., trans. Le Dran’s Observ. Surg. (1771), 334. A Dose of Tartar Emetic.
1795. Gaitskell, in Memoirs Med., IV. 79 (heading), Observations and Experiments on the external absorption of Emetic Tartar and Arsenic.
1846. Mrs. Carlyle, Lett. (1883), I. 383. Dosing me with tartar-emetic and opium.
1844. J. T. Hewlett, Parsons & W., vi. Tartar-emeticising the establishment at breakfast.
