† plumˈbagine Obs.
Also plomb-.
[ad. F. plombagine (1572 in Godef.), ad. L. plumbāgo, -inem: see plumbago.]
1. See quots. (Perh. never in Eng. use.)
| [1611 Cotgr., Plombagine, f., pure lead turned almost into ashes by the vehemence of the fire: This is th'artificiall Plombagine, and comes of lead put into a furnace with gold, or siluer oare, to make them melt the sooner... There is also a naturall, or minerall Plombagine, which (as Mathiolus thinketh) is no other then siluer mingled with lead-stone, or oare.] 1656 Blount Glossogr., Plumbagin [quoting Cotgr. verbatim]. 1658 Phillips, Plumbagin [1706 -ine], silver mingled with lead stone, or oar. 1730–6 Bailey (folio), Plumbagine, lead naturally mingled with silver. |
2. = plumbago 2.
| 1802 Playfair Illustr. Hutton. The. 304 In the banks of the same river [Ayr] some miles higher up, he [Dr. Hutton] found a piece of coal..involved in whinstone, and extremely incombustible. It consumed very slowly in the fire, and deflagrated with nitre like plumbago. This he considered as the same fossil which has been described under the name of plombagine. 1811 Pinkerton Petralogy I. 552 Anthracite seems to have been first observed by Dolomieu; but Born..has classed it under graphite, which he calls plombagine, or carburet of iron. 1854 J. Scoffern in Orr's Circ. Sc., Chem. 384 Crystallized carbon is..found naturally..as a mineral species known by the appellation plumbagine. 1857 Birch Anc. Pottery (1858) I. 245 Vauquelin takes it to be a carbonaceous matter, such as plumbagine or black-lead. |