▪ I. argol1
(ˈɑːgəl)
Forms: 4–5 argoyle, -oile, -oille, 6 -uyll, -ell, -oll, 6–7 -all, 7 -aile, 9 argal, 7– argol.
[Origin unknown: found also as argoil in Anglo-French 1250–1300 in Liber Albus I. 225, 231.]
The tartar deposited from wines completely fermented, and adhering to the sides of the casks as a hard crust; crude bitartrate of potassium, which, when purified, becomes cream of tartar.
| [c 1260 Liber Albus I. 231 Des avoirs qe veignent doutre meer: ciere, argoil, quivere, estein.] c 1386 Chaucer Can. Yeom. Prol. & T. 260 Of tartre, alym, glas, berm, wort, and argoyle [v.r. -oile, -oille]. 1540 T. Raynalde Birth Man. iv. vi. (1634) 202 Wine lees dryed..which the Goldsmiths do call Arguyll. 1610 B. Jonson Alch. i. iii, You have arsnike, Vitriol, saltartre, argaile. 1611 Cotgr., Tartre: Tartar or Argall, the lees or dregs that sticke to the sides of wine-vessells. 1714 Mandeville Fab. Bees (1725) I. 412 Argol we might have from the Rhine. 1834 Penny Cycl. II. 309/2 Nearly 1000 tons of argol are annually imported into this kingdom. It comes to us from almost all wine-producing countries. 1863 Watts Dict. Chem. I. 356 Argal or Argol. 1875 Ure Dict. Arts III. 970 There are two sorts of argol known in commerce, the white and the red; the former, which is of a pale pinkish colour, is the crust let fall by white wines; the latter is a dark red from red wines. |
¶ Erroneously for archil, orchil, q.v.
| 1758 Phil. Trans. L. 668 Another of the..useful plants of this division is the orchel, or argol, as it is commonly called. 1776 Withering Bot. Arrangem. (1796) I. 372 One [lichen] brought from the Canary Islands, viz. the Orchel or Argol. |
▪ II. ‖ argol2, -al
(ˈɑːgəl)
[Mongol.]
Dried cow-dung used as fuel in Tartary.
| 1856 Hazlitt Huc's Trav. 35 Alas! how should we make a fire, when we have no argols? 1883 Athenæum 10 Nov. 605/3 In summer, when the dried argals fail as fuel. |