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Mercury vs Nonmercurial - What's the difference?

mercury | nonmercurial |

As a noun mercury

is a metal.

As a proper noun Mercury

is the Roman god associated with speed, sometimes used as a messenger. He wore winged sandals. Mercury corresponded to the Greek god Hermes.

As an adjective nonmercurial is

not mercurial; not containing or relating to mercury, the chemical element.

mercury

English

Noun

(-)
  • A metal.
  • # A silvery-colored, toxic, metallic chemical element, liquid at room temperature, with atomic number 80 and symbol Hg.
  • # (science, historical) One of the elemental principles formerly thought to be present in all metals.
  • # The mercury as used in a barometer or thermometer; ambient temperature.
  • The mercury there has averaged 37.6C, 2.3C above the February norm.
  • # (obsolete) Liveliness, volatility.
  • #* Bishop Burnet
  • He was so full of mercury that he could not fix long in any friendship, or to any design.
  • A plant.
  • # An annual plant, Mercurialis annua , formerly grown for its medicinal properties; French mercury.
  • #* 1653 , (Nicholas Culpeper), The English Physician Enlarged , Folio Society 2007, p. 188:
  • Towards the tops of the stalks and branches come forth at every joint in the male Mercury two small round green heads, standing together upon a short footstalk, which growing ripe are the seeds, not having any flower.
  • # A similar edible plant, Chenopodium bonus-henricus , otherwise known as English mercury or allgood.
  • # (US, regional) The poison oak or poison ivy.
  • Synonyms

    * azoth (in alchemy ) * hydrargyrum (in medical and sometimes chemical use ) * quicksilver (not in technical use )

    Derived terms

    * argental mercury * cadmium mercury cell * dichloromercury * dimercury * dimethylmercury * eka-mercury * ethylmercury * fulminate of mercury * mecuricals * mercurate * mercurial * mercuriate * mercuric * mercurify * mercurio-syphilis * mercurochrome * mercurous * mercury arc, mercury arc rectifier, mercury arc valve * mercury bichloride, mercury dichloride * mercury cadmium telluride * mercury dichloride * mercury fulminate * mercury gilding * mercury goosefoot * mercury lamp * mercury perchloride * mercury poisoning * mercury pool * mercury protochloride * mercury rust * mercury selenide * mercury sulfide, mercury sulphide * mercury switch * mercury thermometer * mercury vapor lamp, mercury vapour lamp * mercury vapor pump, mercury vapour pump * mercury vapor rectifier, mercury vapour rectifier * methylmercury * red mercury

    See also

    * blue mass * calomel * cinnabar * cinnabarite * corderoite * corrosive sublimate * Good King Henry * livingstonite * sublimate * thimerosal, thiomersal English eponyms

    nonmercurial

    English

    Adjective

    (-)
  • Not mercurial; not containing or relating to mercury, the chemical element.