quicksilver

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle English quiksilver,^[2][3][4] inherited from Old English cwicseolfor (“living silver”),^[5][6][7] made up of cwic (“alive”) and seolfor (“silver”),^[6][3] that is, quick in its old sense "living" and silver.^[5][4] The compound follows Latin argentum vīvum (“living silver”), a phrase found in Pliny,^[8][9] which also gave Italian argento vivo.^[5][4] Middle Dutch quicsilver (now Dutch kwikzilver), Middle Low German quiksilver and Old High German quecsilabar (now German Quecksilber) are either cognate with the English word or formed in the same way;^[8] Swedish kvicksilver and Danish kviksølv follow the Middle Low German word.^[8] Anglo-Norman vif argent and Old French vis argent, the latter recorded about 1150, are a parallel formation, now French vif-argent.^[8][4]

Earliest recorded meaning

The liquid metal mercury: in the Old English Leechbook, where it is prescribed with rue seed for stomach pain.^[8][7] Dictionary.com dates the word to before 1000.^[10]

Semantic evolution

The name reflects the metal's mobility: Old English cwic meant "living", which gave the sense "running, moving, shifting" also seen in quicksand.^[9][5] The record is thin between Old English and the later Middle Ages, which the OED puts down to a shortage of scientific writing rather than a real break, while allowing that Anglo-Norman and French may have influenced the Middle English use.^[8] In Middle English the word belonged to alchemy and medicine,^[2] and Chaucer has it ten times and Gower once, always of the metal.^[11] Merriam-Webster's Book of Word Histories notes that the same idea of a living, moving metal lies behind hydrargyrum, from Greek for "liquid silver", and probably behind the name mercury itself, after the fleet-footed Roman god.^[9] Johnson (1755) noted that chemists called it mercury.^[12] From the 16th century the word was used of anything fast or changeable,^[8][3][13] and since 1820 also of bright, reflective things.^[8] The verb, first recorded in Newton's Opticks, comes from the metal's use with tin to make glass reflective.^[8][3]

Timeline

• before 1000 – cwicseolfor, the liquid metal mercury.^[8][10]
• 1552 – adjective, resembling quicksilver, mercurial.^[3]
• 1562 – allusively, of rapid motion, in John Heywood's Woorkes.^[8]
• 1704 – verb, to treat with quicksilver, especially to coat glass.^[8]
• 1820 – allusively, of brightness or reflection.^[8]

Meanings

Noun

1. The liquid metal mercury.^[14][3][8]
2. Something that resembles this metal, especially in moving fast or changing suddenly.^[3][8]

Adjective

1. Rapid or unpredictable in movement or change; mercurial: her quicksilver moods.^[14][3]

Verb

1. To coat glass with an amalgam of mercury and tin, as in making mirrors; more generally, to treat or mix with quicksilver.^[3][8]

Word family

• quicksilvery

Related words

• quick
• silver
• quicksand

References

1. ^ Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b Kurath, Hans; Kuhn, Sherman M.; Lewis, Robert E., eds. (1952–2001), Middle English Dictionary, Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press; online edition ed. Frances McSparran et al. (2000–2018)
3. ^ a b c d e f g h i Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
4. ^ a b c d Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
5. ^ a b c d Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
6. ^ a b The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
7. ^ a b Bosworth, Joseph; Toller, T. Northcote (1898), An Anglo-Saxon Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press; Toller, T. Northcote (1921), Supplement
8. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
9. ^ a b c Merriam-Webster's Book of Word Histories, Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
10. ^ a b Dictionary.com Unabridged (2016), based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, New York: Random House
11. ^ Benson, Larry D., Glossarial Concordance to Middle English (Chaucer, Gower), Johns Hopkins University, github.com/jhu-digital-manuscripts/gcme
12. ^ Johnson, Samuel (1755), A Dictionary of the English Language, London; 4th ed. 1773; Johnson's Dictionary Online, ed. Beth Rapp Young et al.
13. ^ Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
14. ^ a b Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins