Mercury

Mercury, n.
  (ˈmɜːkjʊərɪ)
  Forms: 4–5 marcure, 4–7 mercurie, 5 mercurye, 5–7 mercure, 6 marcury, 7 dial. marcary, markry, 5– mercury.
  [ad. (partly through OF. Mercure, Marcure) L. Mercuri-us, prob. f. merc-, merx merchandise.
  The Roman deity was prob. originally the god of commerce only; but in Latin literature he appears as completely identified with the Greek Hermes.
  The transferred application to the planet is found in classical Latin; like the other planetary names, Mercurius became in med. Latin the name of a metal. The astronomical and chemical uses are common to the mod. European langs.; the use as a plant-name is Eng. only, suggested by L. mercuriālis (see mercurial B).]
  I. The god (and derived senses).
  1. A Roman divinity, identified from an early period with the Greek Hermes (son of Jupiter and Maia), the god of eloquence and feats of skill, the protector of traders and thieves, the presider over roads, the conductor of departed souls to the Lower World, and the messenger of the gods; represented in art as a young man with winged sandals and a winged hat, and bearing the caduceus.

1340–70 Alex. & Dind. 667 For mercurie miche spak to mentaine iangle, Ȝe holden him..god of þe tounge. 1390 Gower Conf. II. 158 An other god..Mercurie hihte..The god of Marchantz and of thieves. 1509 Hawes Joyf. Med. 20 Thou Mercury the god of eloquence. 1564 Brief Exam. B iiij b, Wyne was consecrated vnto Bacchus,..Letters vnto Mercury. 1595 Lyly Woman in Moone iv. i, I will make her false and full of slights, Theeuish, lying, suttle, eloquent; For these alone belong to Mercury. 1601 Shakes. Twel. N. i. v. 105 Now Mercury indue thee with leasing. 1602 ― Ham. iii. iv. 58. 1781 Cowper Conversat. 838 May Mercury once more embellish man.

  2. A statue or image of Mercury; spec. = herma; hence, † a sign-post.

1644 Evelyn Diary 8 Nov., A noble fountaine govern'd by a Mercury of brasse. 1667 Dryden & Dk. Newcastle Sir M. Mar-all iv, I stand here, methinks, just like a wooden Mercury, to point her out the way to matrimony. 1693 G. Stepny in Dryden's Juvenal viii. (1697) 194 Those rough Statues on the Road (Which we call Mercuries). a 1697 Aubrey Surrey (1719) II. 92 Here was formerly a Mercury, or Directory-Post for travellers, with Hands pointing to each Road. 1709 Steele Tatler No. 89 ¶11 You may be sure this addition disfigured the statues much more than time had. I remember..a Mercury with a pair of legs that seemed very much swelled with a dropsy. 1760–72 H. Brooke Fool of Qual. (1809) II. 42 Have you any more blocks, madam, for the hewing out of our mercuries?

  3. Applied transf. to persons: a. A messenger or news-bearer.

1594 Shakes. Rich. III, ii. i. 88 But he (poore man) by your first order dyed, And that a winged Mercurie did beare. 1678 Baller in Rigaud Corr. Sci. Men (1841) II. 31 Mr. Gibbons (the mercury of these) waits on horseback at the door. 1678 Abp. Sancroft Occas. Serm. (1694) 131 We give the Winds Wings, and the Angels too; as being the swift Messengers of God, the nimble Mercuries of Heaven. 1864 Athenæum 7 May 637 These chicken-hearted Mercuries [post-boys] always pulled up in Hammersmith, and drank their pint before they faced the common.

  b. One who passes to and fro with messages between parties, esp. in amorous affairs; a go-between.

1598 Shakes. Merry W. ii. ii. 82 But what saies shee to mee? be briefe my good shee-Mercurie. 1638 Sir T. Herbert Trav. (ed. 2) 268 Elgaz-zuli a nimble mercurie undertakes it, and by miraculous conceits agrees them, and fills up the late made breach. 1749 Smollett Gil Blas (1797) III. 138, I am on the eve of becoming Mercury to the heir of the Kingdom. 1803 Censor 1 Aug. 93 He should sound her maid, who..will prove herself a very Mercury in delivering the letters that may be entrusted to her on either side. 1817 Byron Beppo xvi, A letter, Which flies on wings of light-heel'd Mercuries.

  c. A guide or conductor upon the road.

1592 Moryson Lett. in Itin. i. 25 The Mercury you gave to guide me, brought me meate plentifully. 1617 Ibid. iii. 11 God for his onely begotten Sonnes sake (the true Mercury of Travellers) bring us that are here strangers safely into our true Countrey. 1641 J. W[adsworth] (title) The European Mercury. Describing the Highwayes and Stages from place to place, through the most remarkable parts of Christendome. 1642 Milton Apol. Smect. Wks. 1851 III. 284 Others, as the Stoicks, to account reason, which they call the Hegemonicon, to be the common Mercury conducting without error those that give themselves obediently to be led accordingly.

  † d. A nimble person; also, a dexterous thief.

1599 B. Jonson Ev. Man out of Hum. i. ii, I would ha' those Mercuries follow me (I trow) should remember they had not their fingers for nothing. 1609 Ev. Woman in Hum. i. i. in Bullen O. Pl. IV, There again my little Mercuries, froath them up to the brimme, and fill as tis needeful.

  † e. One who hawks pamphlets or news-books.

1648 Commons' Jrnls. V. 436 That thirty thousand of these petitions were to come forth in print this day, and delivered to the Mercuries that cry about books. 1655 Fuller Hist. Camb. 24 Circumforanean Pedlers (ancestors to our modern Mercuries and Hawkers) which secretly vend prohibited Pamphlets. 1721 Lett. fr. Mist's Jrnl. (1722) II. 256 The Croud of Coffee-Men, Mercuries, Pamphlet-Shop-Keepers, and Hawkers.

  4. A title for a newspaper or journal. † Formerly also used gen. = newspaper.

[1626 B. Jonson Staple of News i. v, But what sayes Mercurius Britannicus to this?] 1643 (title) The Scotch Mercury, communicating the affairs of Scotland and the Northern Parts. No. 1, Oct. 5. 1644 Nicholas in Carte Ormond (1735) III. 279 Whereof your Excellence will find exact relation in the mercuries adjoined. 1664 Butler Hud. ii. i. 56 With letters hung like Eastern Pidgeons, And Mercuries of furthest Regions. 1691 (title) The Athenian Mercury. Numb. 2. 1725 Stamp-Office Notice 3 Apr. in Lond. Gaz. No. 6362/1 No Journal, Mercury or Newspaper. 1791 D'Israeli Curios. Lit., Orig. Newspapers §14 A Mercury was the prevailing title of these ‘News-Books’. 1855 Macaulay Hist. Eng. xxi. IV. 542 No allusion to it [the bill of 1695 for the regulation of the press] is to be found in the Monthly Mercuries. 1906 (title) The Leeds Mercury.

  II. The planet.
  5. Astr. The planet nearest to the sun, and the smallest of the major planets.

c 1386 Chaucer Wife's Prol. 703 And thus, god woot! Mercurie is desolat In Pisces, wher Venus is exaltat. 1390 Gower Conf. III. 110 Of the Planetes the secounde Above the Mone hath take his bounde, Mercurie. c 1440 Promp. Parv. 333/2 Mercurye, sterre, mercurius. 1509 Hawes Past. Pleas. xvi. (Percy Soc.) 74 Fayre golden Mercury, wyth hys bemes bryght. 1611 Shakes. Wint. T. iv. iii. 25 My Father..who being (as I am) lytter'd vnder Mercurie, was likewise a snapper-vp of vnconsidered trifles. 1642 Howell For. Trav. v. (Arb.) 33 Mercury swayeth ore the one [a Frenchman], and Saturne ore the other [a Spaniard]. 1832 MacGillivray Humboldt's Trav. xxiii. 336 At..Callao, Humboldt had the satisfaction of observing the transit of Mercury. 1880 Ball Elem. Astron. 191 The time in which Mercury revolves round the sun is 87 days.

  6. Her. The name for the tincture purpure in blazoning by the names of the heavenly bodies.

1562 Leigh Armorie 18, I will speake of the Planet appropried therto [sc. to the tincture purpure] and that hyght Mercurye. 1572 J. Bossewell Armorie ii. 57 The fielde is Mercury, an Equicerve, of the Moone. 1725 J. Coats Dict. Heraldry (1739). 1828–40 Berry Encycl. Herald. I.

  III. (With lower-case initial.) The metal (and derived senses).
  7. A well-known metal (otherwise called quicksilver), of a silver-white colour and brilliant metallic lustre. It is liquid at ordinary temperatures, solidifying at about -40°. It has the peculiar property of absorbing other metals, forming amalgams. It is found native, but is more commonly obtained by sublimation from cinnabar, its most important ore. Chemical symbol Hg (hydrargyrum). By the alchemists it was represented by the same sign as the planet Mercury (☿).

c 1386 Chaucer Can. Yeom. Prol. & T. 219, 221 And in amalgaming and calcening Of quik-silver, y-clept Mercurie crude... Our orpiment and sublymed Mercurie. c 1485 Digby Myst. (1882) iii. 318 Gold perteynyng to þe sonne..Þe fegetyff mercury, on-to mercuryus. 1555 Eden Decades (Arb.) 363 They..amalgame it..with Mercurie or quicksyluer. 1604 E. G[rimstone] D'Acosta's Hist. Indies iv. x. 235 The fume of Mercurie is mortall. 1612 Woodall Surg. Mate Wks. (1653) 226 Sublimed Mercury is called onely by the name of Mercury, and by the vulgar speech, some call it white Marcary and Markry. 1614 W. Barclay Nepenthes A 6 b, There is no vegetall in the world, hath such affinitie with any minerall, as hath Tabacco with Mercure, or quicke⁓siluer. 1758 [see Jupiter 2 b]. 1863 Fownes' Chem. (ed. 9) 392 Alloys of mercury with other metals are termed amalgams.

  b. A preparation of the metal or of one of its compounds (esp. the protochloride or calomel, and the bichloride or corrosive sublimate), used in medicine.

1789 W. Buchan Dom. Med. (1790) 659 Bolus of Rhubarb and Mercury. Take of the best rhubarb..half a drachm; of calomel, from four to six grains. 1801 Med. Jrnl. V. 73 He took no mercury nor any other medicine. 1903 Sloan Carlyle Country xv. 125 Dr. Bell gave him mercury and solemnly commanded him to abstain from tobacco.

  c. The column of mercury in a barometer or thermometer. Also fig.

1704 Phil. Trans. XXIV. 1629 An Experiment, to show the cause of the descent of the Mercury in the Barometer in a Storm. 1729 Clarke tr. Rohault's Nat. Philos. 72, I filled a Tube three Foot and a half long, with Quicksilver,..I..observed exactly the Height of the Mercury. 1756 C. Lucas Ess. Waters I. 44 The mercury falls below 33 degrees of Fahrenheit's thermometer. 1883 I. L. Bishop in Leis. Hour 195/1 The mercury has not been above 83°. 1897 Westm. Gaz. 4 June 2/1 People would like to stand in front of the mercury of war and see it rise or fall.

  d. vegetable mercury: (a) a name for the Brazilian plant Franciscea uniflora (Treas. Bot. 1866); (b) see quot. 1887.

1887 Standard 16 Sept. 5/2 The tree tomato..on the Spanish Mainland is known as..the ‘vegetable mercury’, from its supposed beneficial effect on the liver.

  8. Old Chem. a. One of the five elementary ‘principles’ of which all material substances were supposed to be compounded; also called spirit. b. mercury of metals: see quot. 1727–52.

1471 Ripley Comp. Alch. iv. vi. in Ashm. (1652) 145 Mercury and Sulphure vive. 14.. Pater Sapientiae ibid. 197 Some say that of Sulphur and Mercury all Bodyes minerall are made. 1592–3 G. Harvey New Lett. Wks. (Grosart) I. 294 Three drops of the Mercury of Buglosse will strengthen the brain. 1605 Timme Quersit. Ded., The spirit of the world..moueth..in all creatures, giving them existence in three, to wit—salt, sulphure, and mercury. 1712 tr. Pomet's Hist. Drugs I. 177 The Mercury of the Manna being brought to the fluid Nature of a Spirit, becomes a Solutive for Minerals. 1727–52 Chambers Cycl., Mercury of metals, or of the philosophers, is a pure fluid substance in form of common running mercury, said to be found in all metals, and capable of being extracted from the same. 1729 Clarke tr. Rohault's Nat. Philos. xx. 109 Hence they conclude, that these five Substances, viz. Mercury, Phlegm, Sulphur, Salt and Caput mortuum,..are the only and the true Elements of all..Mixed Bodies. 1731 P. Shaw Three Ess. Artif. Philos. 36 Attempts for procuring the Mercuries of the several Metals, to profit.

  † 9. fig. as an emblem of sprightliness, liveliness, volatility of temperament, inconstancy, wittiness, etc. Often in phr. to fix the mercury (of). Obs.

1682 Dryden Medal 263 Religion thou hast none: thy mercury Has passed through every sect, or theirs through thee. 1693 Congreve Old Bach. i. iv, As able as yourself and as nimble too, though I mayn't have so much mercury in my limbs. a 1700 B. E. Dict. Cant. Crew, Mercury, Wit. 1704 Swift Tale of a Tub Pref. ¶4 The moderns have artfully fixed this mercury [sc. Wit] and reduced it to circumstances of time, place, and person. 1709 Felton Classics (1718) 9 'Tis difficult to fix the Mercury, and settle a brisk, lively Temper in a laborious plodding Track of Learning. 1710 Palmer Proverbs 200 They are all mercury; and a piece of wit, a bottle, or a jest, is a comfort, and supports 'em. a 1715 Burnet Own Time (1724) I. 265 He [Buckingham] was so full of mercury that he could not fix long in any friendship or to any design. 1732 Pope Ess. Man ii. 177 'Tis thus the Mercury of Man is fix'd. a 1797 Walpole George II (1847) II. vii. 218 He had too much mercury and too little ill-nature to continue a periodical war.

  IV. As a plant-name. [After L. (herba) mercurialis, mercurial B 1; cf. L. Hermūpoa (Pliny) a. Gr. *Ἑρµοῦ πόα.]
  10. a. The pot-herb allgood, Chenopodium Bonus-Henricus. Also English mercury, false mercury.

a 1400–50 Stockh. Med. MS. p. 203 Mercurie or papwourtz or þe more smerewourt: mercurialis. c 1450 ME. Med. Bk. (Heinrich) 74 Take malues, & mercurye, & seþe hem wyþ a messe of porke. 1548 [see 10 b]. 1578 Lyte Dodoens v. xi. 561 In English, Good Henry and Algood: of some it is taken for Mercurie. 1584 Cogan Haven of Health xxix. 45 It is a common prouerbe among the people, Be thou sicke or whole, put Mercurie in thy coole. 1597 Gerarde Herbal ii. xliv. 259 English Mercurie, or good Henrie. 1620 Venner Via Recta vii. 144 Mercurie is much vsed among other pot-hearbes. 1731 Gentl. Mag. I. 314 Take Marsh Mallow Leaves the Herb Mercury, Saxifrage and Pellitory of the Wall of each..three handfulls. 1785 Martyn Rousseau's Bot. xvii. (1794) 221 The English Mercury or Allgood. 1865 W. White East. Eng. II. 12 One of the dishes contained Mercury, a vegetable which I had never seen before.

  b. The euphorbiaceous poisonous plant Mercurialis perennis. Also dog's mercury, wild mercury.

1548 Turner Names Herbes (E.D.S.) 53 Mercurialis is called..in englishe Mercury... The herbe whiche is communely called in englishe mercury hath nothyng to do wyth mercurialis. 1578 Lyte Dodoens i. lii. 77 In English wilde Mercury, and Dogges Call. 1597 Gerarde Herbal ii. xlviii. 263 Of wilde Mercurie... Dogs Mercurie. 1607 Topsell Four-f. Beasts (1658) 390 If you take white Hellebor, and the rindes of wilde Mercury..and lay them in the Mole-hole..it will kill them. 1762 B. Stillingfl. in Misc. Tracts 216 Dogs mercury has been given internally, for want of knowing the natural classes. 1853 Johnston Bot. E. Bord. 175 Mercurialis perennis. Mercury. 1887 Pall Mall G. 27 June 5/2 The dog's mercury raises its fresh yellow suckers for the spring shoots. 1893 E. H. Barker Wand. South. Waters 57, I stood amidst the poisonous dog-mercury.

  c. The euphorbiaceous plant Mercurialis annua. Also baron's mercury, boy's mercury, French mercury, garden mercury, girl's mercury, maiden mercury.
  According to Britten and Holland, the baron's or boy's is the female and the girl's the male mercury.

1578 Lyte Dodoens i. lii. 75 The male garden Mercury, or the French Mercury. Ibid. 78 Phyllon... The male is called ἀρρενογόνον, whiche may be Englished Barons Mercury or Phyllon, or Boyes Mercury or Phyllon. And the female is called in Greeke θηλυγόνον: and this kinde may be called in English Gyrles Phyllon or Mercury, Daughters Phyllon, or Mayden Mercury. 1601 R. Chester Love's Mart., etc. (N. Shaks. Soc.) 82 Sweete Sugar Canes, Sinkefoile, and boies Mercurie.

  d. Scotch mercury, the snapdragon, Digitalis purpurea. three-seeded mercury, the euphorbiaceous genus Acalypha.

1846–50 A. Wood Class-bk. Bot. 488 Acalypha Virginica. Three-seeded Mercury. 1853 Johnston Bot. E. Bord. 157 Digitalis purpurea..Fox-glove... Scotch Mercury. Wild Mercury.—Common.

  V. 11. attrib. and Comb., as (sense 7) mercury cup, mercury pump; mercury arc lamp (also ellipt. as mercury arc) = mercury vapour lamp; mercury arc rectifier, a rectifier consisting of one or more graphite or iron anodes and a mercury pool cathode enclosed in an envelope from which the air has been pumped out; mercury fulminate, fulminate of mercury; mercury gilding (see quot. 1960); mercury goosefoot = 10 a, above; mercury lamp = mercury vapour lamp; mercury pool, a mass of liquid mercury, esp. one used as an electrode; † Mercury rod, the caduceus; mercury rust, a fungus, Uredo confluens, on the leaves of Dog's Mercury; † Mercury's finger, (a) = hermodactyl 1; (b) a finger-post; † mercury sublimate, corrosive sublimate; mercury vapour lamp, a lamp in which light (rich in the ultra-violet) is produced by an electric discharge through mercury vapour, the envelope being often coated with a fluorescent substance so as to produce more visible light (cf. fluorescent lamp); mercury vapour pump, a pump for producing high vacua which works by entraining molecules of the gas to be evacuated in a jet of mercury vapour; mercury vapour rectifier = mercury arc rectifier; † Mercury's violets, Canterbury Bells, Campanula Medium; † mercury-water, (a) a preparation of aqua regia and corrosive sublimate (see aqua mercurialis in Chambers Suppl. 1753); also (see quot. 1799); (b) a wash for the skin prepared from mercury; † mercury woman (see quot. and cf. Mercury 3 e).

1906 Trans. Amer. Inst. Electr. Engin. XXIV. 372 The constant current *mercury arc rectifier system, as used for operating..mercury arc lamps..is sketched diagrammatically. 1916 F. B. Pidduck Treat. Electr. ix. 363 The absence of strong lines in the red unfits the mercury arc for certain purposes. 1936 Teago & Gill Mercury Arcs ii. 13 Steel containers are used for demountable mercury arcs of large output. 1971 New Scientist 3 June 564/1 The conventional sources of infrared radiation are hot bodies (the globar or mercury arc lamp).

1906 *Mercury arc rectifier [see mercury arc lamp above]. 1930 Engineering 24 Jan. 109/3 A 650-volt direct-current supply from mercury arc rectifiers. 1966 G. F. Allen Brit. Rail after Beeching v. 133 In the Eastern Region's multiple-units..the resultant distortions in the electrical circuitry were aggravated by serious failures of the mercury-arc rectifiers.

1849 Noad Electricity 403 Used to connect the *mercury cups of a small battery.

1904 Kynoch Jrnl. Oct.–Dec. 199 The flame from the *mercury fulminate..ignites the charge of explosive contained in..the case. 1973 L. Russell Everyday Life Colonial Canada xii. 150 The hammer [of a gun] was reduced to a simple head, designed to strike the top of the copper [percussion] cap. Under this top was a pinch of mercury fulminate, a compound so unstable that a moderate impact causes it to explode.

[1910 R. L. Hobson Worcester Porc. xii. 100 A radical change came over the ware about 1780, when the cheaper process of mercurial gilding came into use... This later gilding has a more metallic and brassy appearance.] 1957 Mankowitz & Haggar Conc. Encycl. Eng. Pott. & Porc. 95/2 *Mercury gilding was introduced about 1785. 1960 R. G. Haggar Conc. Encycl. Cont. Pott. & Porc. 207/1 s.v. Gilding, Mercury-gilding came in about 1780, and consisted of a mixture of gold with mercury which could be painted onto the ware, the mercury being driven off as a vapour during the firing process. 1971 Country Life 10 June 1419/2 This mercury gilding was harder, longer wearing and more brilliantly lustrous than honey gilding, but tended to display a brassy tinge.

185. Miss Pratt Flower. Pl. IV. 276 *Mercury Goosefoot, or Good King Henry.

1904 Trans. Amer. Inst. Electr. Engin. XXII. 73 Hewitt's investigations..are..pioneer work in the field of the *mercury lamps. 1966 Hewitt & Vause Lamps & Lighting xviii. 276 Mercury lamps are used for street lighting and to a limited extent in industrial installations.

1907 Franklin & Esty Elem. Electr. Engin. II. ix. 172 The mercury-arc rectifier consists essentially of a highly exhausted glass bulb..with two iron or graphite electrodes..and the *mercury-pool electrode. 1956 Nature 11 Feb. 267/2 Industrially, the polarograph is finding an ever-increasing application as a continuous service indicator. For such purposes, the mercury-pool anode is unsatisfactory. 1970 J. Shepherd et al. Higher Electr. Engin. (ed. 2) xxv. 799 The connexions apply equally to 3- and 6-anode mercury-arc rectifiers in which case all the ‘cathodes’ are common and are in fact the mercury pool.

1873 Atkinson Ganot's Physics (ed. 6) 147 Morren's *mercury pump..a mercurial air pump.

1625 Bacon Ess., Unity in Relig. (end), Therefore it is most necessary, that..all Learnings,..as by their *Mercury Rod, doe damne and send to Hell, for euer, those Facts and Opinions.

1864 Cooke in Pop. Sci. Rev. III. 336 *Mercury Rust (Uredo confluens) on leaf of Mercurialis perennis.

1589 Rider Bibl. Scholast. 1748 An hearb called *Mercuries finger, Hermodactylus. 1607 Topsell Four-f. Beasts (1658) 431 The herb called Mercuries-fingers or Dogs bane. 1640 Bp. Reynolds Passions xxiv. (1647) 245 Precedents having the same precedence to Reason in vulgar judgements, which a living and accompanying guide hast to a Mercuries finger in a Travellers conceit.

1707 Luttrell Brief Rel. (1857) VI. 186 A French party..took some medicaments from them, among which was *mercury sublimate. 1799 G. Smith Laboratory I. 86 Mercury sublimate or corrosive sublimate.

1904 Brit. Pat. 3657 2 The light given out is similar to that which is given out by an ordinary *mercury vapour lamp. 1909 Westm. Gaz. 6 Mar. 3/2 A ‘new’ process of sterilising milk by exposing it to the ultra-violet rays of a mercury-vapour lamp. 1943 J. B. Priestley Daylight on Saturday i. 2 The factory inside is..lit with innumerable mercury-vapour lamps that produce a queer greenish-white mistiness of light. 1955 E. B. Ford Moths i. 15 Owing to the high power and surface-brightness of a mercury-vapour lamp, such a source may provide a more efficient means of collecting than an ordinary light. 1972 New Yorker 26 Aug. 20/3 In the glare of mercury-vapor street lamps, the Bronx presents a silent, bland, greenish face.

1926 J. H. Smith tr. Dunoyer's Vacuum Practice i. 42 In *mercury vapour pumps the size of the orifice through which the vapour is driven is..of secondary importance. 1966 Adam & Edwards tr. Diels & Jaeckel's Leybold Vacuum Handbk. i. vi. 90 Special forms of cold traps with maximum practicable conductivity have been designed for large mercury vapour pumps.

1908 M. Solomon Electr. Lamps xi. 283 This property of the mercury-vapour arc has led to the invention and development of *mercury-vapour rectifiers. 1966 R. G. Kloeffler Electron Tubes ix. 194 The mercury-vapor rectifier diode uses a hot cathode and mercury vapor under a low pressure.

1597 Gerarde Herbal ii. cix. 363 Couentrie bels are called..*Mercuries violets.

1634 Sanderson Serm. II. 291 There is a secret poyson in it, which in time will..seize upon every part; and, like *mercury-water or aqua fortis, eat out all. 1676 Shadwell Virtuoso iii. 55 All manner of Washes, Almond-water, and Mercury-water for the Complexion. 1799 G. Smith Laboratory I. 131 note, Mercury-water, so called by the workmen, is thus prepared. Take plate-tin of Cornwall, calcine it, [etc.].

1661 Blount Glossogr. s.v. Hawkers, Those people which go up and down the streets crying News-books, and selling them by retail, are also called Hawkers. And those women that sell them by whole-sale from the Press, are called *Mercury Women.

Oxford English Dictionary