vitriol

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle English vitriol, also vitriole and vitreol,^[2][3] borrowed from Old French vitriol (13th century)^[4][5][6] and directly borrowed from Medieval Latin vitriolum,^[4][5][2] the noun use of the neuter of vitriolus, a variant of Late Latin vitreolus (“of glass”),^[5][6][7] from Latin vitreus (“of glass, glassy”), from vitrum (“glass”).^[5][6][7][8] The salts were so named from the glassy look of their crystals.^[7][6][8][9] The same Latin word gave Spanish vitriolo, Portuguese vitriolo and Italian vetriolo.^[4] It is related to vitreous.^[5][7]

Earliest recorded meaning

A glassy metal sulfate, especially sulfate of iron, used in alchemy and medicine: about 1386, in Chaucer's Canon's Yeoman's Tale,^[4] which the Middle English Dictionary dates about 1395.^[2] Barnhart dates the word to 1392,^[6] and Etymonline to the late 14th century.^[5]

Semantic evolution

In Middle English the word covered the various glassy sulfates, told apart by their colour: green vitriol, the sulfate of iron, and blue vitriol, the sulfate of copper.^[2][4] Oil of vitriol, concentrated sulfuric acid, is recorded from 1580,^[4][8] and vitriol alone also came to mean sulfuric acid.^[10][11] The figurative sense, bitterness or virulence of feeling or speech, alludes to the corrosive properties of vitriol and is first recorded in 1769, in Stat Nominis Umbra by "Junius",^[4][6][5] and the adjective vitriolic, recorded from 1670, was used figuratively from 1841.^[6] Johnson (1755) knew only the chemical sense.^[12] The verb, to injure someone with vitriol or expose something to it, dates from 1897.^[4][13]

Timeline

• c. 1386 – a glassy metal sulfate, in Chaucer.^[4]
• c. 1400 – with colour words: blue, green, white vitriol.^[4]
• 1580 – oil of vitriol, concentrated sulfuric acid.^[4]
• 1769 – bitterness or virulence of feeling or speech.^[4][6][5]
• 1897 – verb, to injure with vitriol, or to treat with it.^[4]

Meanings

Noun

1. Bitter, caustic criticism or hostility in speech or writing: The review was full of vitriol.^[10][4]
2. Sulfuric acid, especially in concentrated form (oil of vitriol).^[10][13][4]
3. Any of several glassy sulfates of metals, such as copper sulfate (blue vitriol), iron sulfate (green vitriol) or zinc sulfate (white vitriol).^[10][13][4]

Verb

1. To treat something with vitriol, especially to dip metal in dilute sulfuric acid.^[13][4]
2. To injure a person by throwing vitriol.^[4]

Word family

• vitriolic
• vitriolize
• blue vitriol
• iron vitriol
• oil of vitriol
• white vitriol

Related words

• vitreous
• vitrify

References

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