calomel
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cal·o·mel
(kăl′ə-mĕl′, -məl)n.
A white or brown tasteless powder, Hg2Cl2, used as an insecticide and formerly as a purgative. Also called mercurous chloride.
[Probably from New Latin calomelās : Greek kalos, beautiful + melās, black.]
American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition. Copyright © 2016 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.
calomel
(ˈkæləˌmɛl; -məl)n
(Elements & Compounds) a colourless tasteless powder consisting chiefly of mercurous chloride, used medicinally, esp as a cathartic. Formula: Hg2Cl2
[C17: perhaps from New Latin calomelas (unattested), literally: beautiful black (perhaps so named because it was originally sublimed from a black mixture of mercury and mercuric chloride), from Greek kalos beautiful + melas black]
Collins English Dictionary – Complete and Unabridged, 12th Edition 2014 © HarperCollins Publishers 1991, 1994, 1998, 2000, 2003, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2011, 2014
cal•o•mel
(ˈkæl əˌmɛl, -məl)n.
a white, tasteless powder, Hg2Cl2, used chiefly as a purgative and fungicide. Also called mercurous chloride.
[1670–80; < New Latin calomelas]
Random House Kernerman Webster's College Dictionary, © 2010 K Dictionaries Ltd. Copyright 2005, 1997, 1991 by Random House, Inc. All rights reserved.
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Noun | 1. | calomel - a tasteless colorless powder used medicinally as a cathartic black lotion, blackwash - a mixture of calomel and limewater that is used on syphilitic sores atomic number 80, Hg, hydrargyrum, mercury, quicksilver - a heavy silvery toxic univalent and bivalent metallic element; the only metal that is liquid at ordinary temperatures chloride - any compound containing a chlorine atom |
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