amalgam

Etymology

It is partly borrowed from Middle French amalgame and partly borrowed from Medieval Latin amalgama (“an alloy containing mercury”),^{[2][3][4][5][6]} an alchemists' word recorded in Latin from the 13th century.^[2][7] The Latin word is probably from Arabic اَلْمَلْغَم (al-malḡam, “an emollient poultice”),^[1][3][8] (the OED explains it as "that which has been mixed with mercury", from an Arabic verb meaning to alloy with mercury),^[2] which goes back, probably through Syriac,^[2][8] to Ancient Greek μάλαγμα (málagma, “an emollient, a poultice”),^[2][1][8] from μαλάσσω (malássō, “to soften”), from μαλακός (malakós, “soft”).^[1][8][4] Barnhart instead sees an alteration of Latin malagma (“poultice, plaster”), the Latin form of the Greek word.^[4] Skeat called the origin unknown,^[9] Weekley connected it through Arabic with Ancient Greek γάμος (gámos, “marriage”), after the alchemists' talk of the "marriage" of metals,^[7] and Merriam-Webster Unabridged suggests an Arabic phrase meaning "the assembly".^[10] The noun malagma is the same Greek word borrowed directly.^[1] The verb is either from the noun or from Medieval Latin amalgamō.^[2][6]

Earliest recorded meaning

A soft mass formed by blending gold, silver or another metal with mercury: before 1500, in an alchemical manuscript.^[2] Barnhart dates the word to before 1400 and Etymonline to about 1400,^[4][3] and Merriam-Webster and Dictionary.com to the 15th century.^[10][11]

Semantic evolution

The word belonged first to alchemy, where an amalgam was the soft mass of a metal dissolved in mercury;^[2][3] in later chemistry it is any alloy of mercury with another metal,^[6][2] such as the silver amalgam used by dentists to fill teeth.^[10][12] From 1616, in Ben Jonson, it was used of any close mixture of substances, especially a paste-like one,^[2] and since 1679 of any blend of different things,^[2] a sense Etymonline dates to 1790.^[3] The French word already had this figurative sense in 1414.^[2] The verb, to alloy with mercury, was later largely replaced by amalgamate.^[2]

Timeline

• before 1500 – a soft mass of a metal blended with mercury.^[2]
• before 1550 – verb, to dissolve or alloy a metal with mercury.^[2]
• 1616 – any close mixture of substances, especially a pasty one.^[2]
• 1679 – a blend or combination of various things.^[2]
• 1792 – verb, figuratively, to combine with something else.^[2]

Meanings

Noun

1. An alloy of mercury with another metal, especially one of silver used in dental fillings.^[12][10][2]
2. A blend or combination of different things: The band's sound is an amalgam of folk and punk.^[12][10][2]
3. A rare white mineral consisting of silver and mercury.^[12]

Verb

1. (archaic) To amalgamate; to combine with mercury, or to combine generally.^[10][6][2]

Word family

• amalgamable

Related words

• amalgamate
• amalgamation
• malagma

References

1. ^ a b c d e Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ a b c d e Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
4. ^ a b c d Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
5. ^ Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
6. ^ a b c d Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
7. ^ a b Weekley, Ernest (1921), An Etymological Dictionary of Modern English, London: John Murray
8. ^ a b c d Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
9. ^ Skeat, Walter W. (1911), A Concise Etymological Dictionary of the English Language, new ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press
10. ^ a b c d e f Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
11. ^ Dictionary.com Unabridged (2016), based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, New York: Random House
12. ^ a b c d Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins