Mercury definition | Dictionary.com

mer⋅cu⋅ry

[mur-kyuh-ree]

–noun, plural -ries.

Chemistry. a heavy, silver-white, highly toxic metallic element, the only one that is liquid at room temperature; quicksilver: used in barometers, thermometers, pesticides, pharmaceutical preparations, reflecting surfaces of mirrors, and dental fillings, in certain switches, lamps, and other electric apparatus, and as a laboratory catalyst. Symbol: Hg; atomic weight: 200.59; atomic number: 80; specific gravity: 13.546 at 20°C; freezing point: −38.9°C; boiling point: 357°C.

2.	Pharmacology. this metal as used in medicine, in the form of various organic and inorganic compounds, usually for skin infections.

3.	(initial capital letter) the ancient Roman god who served as messenger of the gods and was also the god of commerce, thievery, eloquence, and science, identified with the Greek god Hermes.

4.	(initial capital letter) Astronomy. the planet nearest the sun, having a diameter of 3031 mi. (4878 km), a mean distance from the sun of 36 million mi. (57.9 million km), and a period of revolution of 87.96 days, and having no satellites: the smallest planet in the solar system.

5.	a messenger, esp. a carrier of news.

6.	any plant belonging to the genus Mercurialis, of the spurge family, esp. the poisonous, weedy M. perennis of Europe.

7.	Good-King-Henry.

8.	(initial capital letter) Aerospace. one of a series of U.S. spacecraft, carrying one astronaut, that achieved the first U.S. suborbital and orbital manned spaceflights.

Origin:
1300–50; ME Mercurie < ML, L Mercurius, akin to merx goods

Dictionary.com Unabridged (v 1.1)
Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2006.
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mer·cu·ry (mûr'kyə-rē) Pronunciation Key
n.

Symbol Hg A silvery-white poisonous metallic element, liquid at room temperature and used in thermometers, barometers, vapor lamps, and batteries and in the preparation of chemical pesticides. Atomic number 80; atomic weight 200.59; melting point -38.87°C; boiling point 356.58°C; specific gravity 13.546 (at 20°C); valence 1, 2. Also called quicksilver. See Table at element.
Temperature: The mercury had fallen rapidly by morning.
Any of several weedy plants of the genera Mercurialis or Acalypha.

[Middle English mercurie, from Medieval Latin mercurius, from Latin Mercurius, Mercury.]

The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
Copyright © 2006 by Houghton Mifflin Company.
Published by Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.
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Mer·cu·ry (mûr'kyə-rē) Pronunciation Key
n.

Roman Mythology A god that served as messenger to the other gods and was himself the god of commerce, travel, and thievery.
The smallest of the inner planets and the one nearest the sun, having a sidereal period of revolution about the sun of 87.97 days at a mean distance of 57.91 million kilometers (35.98 million miles) and a mean radius of approximately 2,440 kilometers (1,516 miles).

[Middle English Mercurie, from Old French, from Latin Mercurius.]

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Online Etymology Dictionary - Cite This Source - Share This
Mercury

c.1150, from L. Mercurius "Mercury," the Roman god, originally a god of tradesmen and thieves, from merx "merchandise;" or perhaps from Etruscan and infl. by merx. Later he was associated with Gk. Hermes. The planet closest to the sun so called in classical L. (c.1386 in Eng.). Sense of "silver-white metal, quicksilver" is first recorded c.1386, when elements were commonly associated alchemically with the planets. This one probably so associated for its mobility.

Online Etymology Dictionary, © 2001 Douglas Harper
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WordNet - Cite This Source - Share This

mercury
noun
1.	a heavy silvery toxic univalent and bivalent metallic element; the only metal that is liquid at ordinary temperatures
2.	(Roman mythology) messenger of Jupiter and god of commerce; counterpart of Greek Hermes
3.	the smallest planet and the nearest to the sun
4.	temperature measured by a mercury thermometer; "the mercury was falling rapidly"

WordNet® 3.0, © 2006 by Princeton University.
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The American Heritage Science Dictionary - Cite This Source - Share This

mercury (mûr'kyə-rē) Pronunciation Key
Symbol Hg

A silvery-white, dense, poisonous metallic element that is a liquid at room temperature and is used in thermometers, barometers, batteries, and pesticides. Atomic number 80; atomic weight 200.59; melting point -38.87°C; boiling point 356.58°C; specific gravity 13.546 (at 20°C); valence 1, 2. See Periodic Table.

Our Living Language : Like a few other elements, mercury has a chemical symbol, Hg, that bears no resemblance to its name. This is because Hg is an abbreviation of the Latin name of the element, which was hydrargium. This word in turn was taken over from Greek, where it literally meant "water-silver." With this name the Greeks were referring to the fact that mercury is a silvery liquid at room temperature, rather than a solid like other metals. Similarly, an older English name for this element is quicksilver, which means "living silver," referring to its ability to move like a living thing. (The word quick used to mean "alive," as in the Biblical phrase "the quick and the dead.") The name mercury refers to the fact that the element flows about quickly: the name comes from the Roman god Mercury, who was the swift-footed messenger of the gods.

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Mercury

The planet closest to the Sun and the second smallest in the solar system. Mercury is a terrestrial or inner planet, second in density only to Earth, with a rugged, heavily-cratered surface similar in appearance to Earth's Moon. Its rotational period of 58.6 days is two-thirds of its 88-day orbital period, thus, it makes three full axial rotations every two years. Mercury's atmosphere is almost nonexistent; this fact, which produces rapid radiational cooling on its dark side, together with its proximity to the Sun, gives it a temperature range greater than any other planet in the solar system, from 466° to -184°C (870° to -300°F). Because it is so close to the Sun, Mercury is only visible shortly before sunrise or after sunset, and observation is further hindered by the fact that its light must pass obliquely through the lower atmosphere where it is distorted or filtered by dust and pollution. See Table at solar system.

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American Heritage New Dictionary of Cultural Literacy, Third Edition - Cite This Source - Share This
Mercury

The Roman name of Hermes, the messenger of the Greek and Roman gods.

Note: The planet nearest the sun is named Mercury. It moves swiftly in its orbit like the messenger of the gods.

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American Heritage New Dictionary of Cultural Literacy, Third Edition - Cite This Source - Share This
Mercury

In astronomy, the planet closest to the sun, named after the fleet-footed messenger of the Roman gods (see under “Mythology and Folklore”) because of its swift movement in its orbit. Mercury takes only eighty-eight days to go around the sun. (See solar system.)

Note: Mercury is sometimes visible from the Earth as a morning or evening star.

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American Heritage New Dictionary of Cultural Literacy, Third Edition - Cite This Source - Share This
mercury

In chemistry, a heavy, silvery metallic element, a liquid at normal temperatures. Mercury expands or contracts rapidly in response to changes in temperature and therefore was once widely used in thermometers.

Note: The term mercury is used figuratively in such expressions as “The mercury's rising” to mean that the temperature is going up.

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American Heritage Stedman's Medical Dictionary - Cite This Source - Share This

mercury mer·cu·ry (mûr'kyə-rē)
n.
Symbol Hg
A silvery-white poisonous metallic element, liquid at room temperature and used in thermometers. Atomic number 80; atomic weight 200.59; melting point -38.83°C; boiling point 356.73°C; specific gravity 13.546 (at 20°C); valence 1, 2. Also called hydrargyrum.

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Merriam-Webster's Medical Dictionary - Cite This Source - Share This
Main Entry: mer·cu·ry
Pronunciation: 'm&r-ky&-rE, -k(&-)rE
Function: noun
Inflected Form: plural -ries
1 : a heavy silver-white poisonous metallic element that is liquid at ordinary temperatures and used especially in scientific instruments —symbol Hg; called also quicksilver;—see ELEMENT table
2 : a pharmaceutical preparation containing mercury or a compound of it
Mercury, Roman mythological character. In Roman mythology Mercury became identified with the Greek god Hermes. This god was known especially as the fleet-footed messenger of the gods. He wasalso the god of science and the arts and the patron of travelers and athletes. He is typically represented in art as a young man wearing a winged helmet and winged sandals and bearing a caduceus. Themetal mercury was named after him most probably because he symbolizes mobility.

Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary - Cite This Source - Share This

Mercury

Mer"cu*ry\, n. [L. Mercurius; akin to merx wares.]

1. (Rom. Myth.) A Latin god of commerce and gain; -- treated by the poets as identical with the Greek Hermes, messenger of the gods, conductor of souls to the lower world, and god of eloquence.

2. (Chem.) A metallic element mostly obtained by reduction from cinnabar, one of its ores. It is a heavy, opaque, glistening liquid (commonly called quicksilver), and is used in barometers, thermometers, ect. Specific gravity 13.6. Symbol Hg (Hydrargyrum). Atomic weight 199.8. Mercury has a molecule which consists of only one atom. It was named by the alchemists after the god Mercury, and designated by his symbol, [mercury].

Note: Mercury forms alloys, called amalgams, with many metals, and is thus used in applying tin foil to the backs of mirrors, and in extracting gold and silver from their ores. It is poisonous, and is used in medicine in the free state as in blue pill, and in its compounds as calomel, corrosive sublimate, etc. It is the only metal which is liquid at ordinary temperatures, and it solidifies at about -39[deg] Centigrade to a soft, malleable, ductile metal.

3. (Astron.) One of the planets of the solar system, being the one nearest the sun, from which its mean distance is about 36,000,000 miles. Its period is 88 days, and its diameter 3,000 miles.

4. A carrier of tidings; a newsboy; a messenger; hence, also, a newspaper. --Sir J. Stephen. "The monthly Mercuries." --Macaulay.

5. Sprightly or mercurial quality; spirit; mutability; fickleness. [Obs.]

He was so full of mercury that he could not fix long in any friendship, or to any design. --Bp. Burnet.

6. (Bot.) A plant (Mercurialis annua), of the Spurge family, the leaves of which are sometimes used for spinach, in Europe.

Note: The name is also applied, in the United States, to certain climbing plants, some of which are poisonous to the skin, esp. to the Rhus Toxicodendron, or poison ivy.

Dog's mercury (Bot.), Mercurialis perennis, a perennial plant differing from M. annua by having the leaves sessile.

English mercury (Bot.), a kind of goosefoot formerly used as a pot herb; -- called Good King Henry.

Horn mercury (Min.), a mineral chloride of mercury, having a semitranslucent, hornlike appearance.

Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary - Cite This Source - Share This

Mercury

Mer"cu*ry\, v. t. To wash with a preparation of mercury. [Obs.] --B. Jonson.