| 释义 |
▪ I. amalgam, n.|əˈmælgəm|
Forms: 5 malgam, amalgame, (7 amalagma), 5–9 amalgama, 5– amalgam.
[a. Fr. amalgame (15th c. in Litt.), and, in the formerly common amalgama, of med.L., in which the word was in regular alchemical use in 13th c. Usually taken as a perversion of L. malagma (in Pliny and the physicians) a mollifying poultice or plaster, a. Gr. µάλαγµα an emollient, f. µαλάσσ-ειν (stem µαλακ-) to soften; or of an Arabic adaptation of µάλαγµα with prefixed al- (as in al-chemy, al-embic, etc.): see the form (of the vb.) almalgamynge in one MS. of Chaucer, and algamala in Du Cange. Bacon's spelling amalagma was refashioned after malagma. Other early writers associated it with Gr. ἅµα together, and γάµος marriage. Devic (Littré Suppl.) suggests a direct Arabic derivation, taking an early variant algame as ad. Arab. al-jamﻋa (orig. al-gamﻋa) union, conjunction, f. jamaﻋa to unite, and conjecturing for amalgame ﻋamal al-jamﻋa ‘the operation of conjunction,’ or al-mojāmﻋa marriage union. But no instance of the use of these, as chemical terms, is cited from Arabic writers.]
1. orig. A soft mass formed by chemical manipulation, esp. a soft or plastic condition of gold, silver, etc. produced by combination with mercury; hence, now, any mixture of a metal with mercury, a mercurial alloy, as gold amalgam, copper amalgam, etc.
1471Ripley Comp. Alch. in Ashm. Theat. Chem. Brit. 1652 ix. 174 When the Medcyn as wax doth flowe, Than uppon Malgams loke thou hyt throw. Ibid. 191 Many Amalgame dyd I make. 1599A. M. Gabelhouer's Bk. Physic 380/1 Beete a Ducket verye thinne..put therof j dr. to j oz. of Quicksiluer..The Amalgama must you wash with Saulte and Vineger. 1664Phil. Trans. I. 23 An Amalgama of Gold and Virgin-Mercury. 1757Lewis ibid. L. 156 An amalgam of one part of platina and two of gold with a suitable quantity of mercury. 1782Kirwan ibid. LXXII. 217 An amalgama of lead and mercury decrepitates when heated. 1869Roscoe Elem. Chem. 214 An amalgam of ammonium can easily be prepared.
native amalgam, an amalgam of mercury with silver or gold, found crystalline, massive, or semi-fluid in various countries.
1875Ure Dict. Arts I. 133 A native amalgam of mercury and silver occurs in fine crystals in the mines of Moschellandsberg, in the Palatinate..A gold amalgam is obtained from the platinum region of Columbia.
2. Extended to, An intimate (plastic) mixture or compound of any two or more substances.
1626Bacon Sylva §99 The Body of the Wood will be turned into a kind of Amalagma. 1650Ashmole Arcanum (ed. 3) 252 Let three weights of Red Earth..Water and Aire, well beaten, be mixt together: let an Amalgama be made like Butter, or Metalline Paste. 1828Kirby & Spence Entomol. I. xv. 497 The bees sometimes mix wax and propolis and make an amalgam.
3. fig. A complete combination of various elements. Also attrib.
1790Burke Fr. Rev. 274 They have attempted to confound all sorts of citizens into one homogeneous mass; and then they divided this their amalgama into..republics. 1823Hone Anc. Myst. 187 Custom is an amalgam of sense and folly. 1841Catlin N. Amer. Ind. II. lvi. 210 [They] go by the familiar appellation of the amalgam name of ‘Sacs and Foxes.’ 1863Mrs. C. Clarke Shaksp. Char. ii. 60 Touchstone's philosophy,—a choice and rich amalgam of sweet temper and untiring humour.
4. An ingredient in an amalgam; an ‘alloy.’
1840Carlyle Heroes (1858) 315 Few men were without quackery; they had got to consider it a necessary ingredient and amalgam for truth. 1873Burton Hist. Scotl. I. iii. 119 No tin or other amalgam.
▪ II. aˈmalgam, v. arch.
[a. Fr. amalgame-r (14th c. in Littré); f. amalgame: see prec. Now repl. by amalgamate v.]
†1. trans. To soften by combination with mercury; to alloy with mercury. Obs.
c1386Chaucer Can. Yeom. Prol. & T. 218 The care and wo That we hadde in amalgamynge [v.r. almalgamynge, a malgamynge] and calcenynge Of quyksilver. 1471Ripley Comp. Alch. in Ashm. Theat. Chem. Brit. 1652 ix. 174 They Amalgam ther Bodys wyth Mercury lyke papp. 1610B. Jonson Alchem. ii. iii, What is some three ounces Of gold, t' Amalgame with some six of Mercury?
†2. intr. To enter into combination with mercury.
1583Plat Jewel-ho. iii. (1594) 79 If you put Mercurie therein it will amalgame with it. a1691Boyle Wks. I. 638 (R.) Quicksilver easily amalgams with metals.
3. trans. To coat or cover with amalgam.
1789Nicholson Electr. in Phil. Trans. LXXIX. 272, I pasted a piece of leather upon a thin flat piece of wood, then amalgamed its whole surface.
4. fig. To combine.
1827Hare Guesses at Tr. II. 254 They transferred the intelligence to human forms instead of amalgaming it as we do with the material objects themselves. |