orpiment
(ˈɔːpɪmənt)
Also 5–7 orpement, 5 -mynt, orpyment, 6–7 orp(e)mente, (orpinent), 6–8 orpment. See also auripigment.
[a. OF. orpiment (12th c. in Hatz.-Darm.), also or pieument, or pigment (Godef.), ad. L. auripigmentum (Vitruv.) gold pigment. Cf. It. orpimento, Sp. oropimiento.]
A bright yellow mineral substance, the trisulphide of arsenic, also called Yellow Arsenic, found native in soft masses resembling gold in colour; also manufactured by the combination of sulphur and arsenious oxide; used as a pigment under the name of King's Yellow.
Orpiment is the original arsenic, ἀρσενικόν, of the ancients. Also called yellow orpiment to distinguish it from the so-called red orpiment = realgar, disulphide of arsenic: see arsenic 1 a, b.
| [1310 Acc. Exors. T. Bp. of Exeter (Camden) 8 De xxd. de iiij libris de orpiment venditis.] c 1386 Chaucer Can. Yeom. Prol. & T. 270 The firste spirit quyk siluer called is, The seconde Orpyment [v. rr. orpement, orpemynt, orpiment]. a 1387 Sinon. Barthol. (Anecd. Oxon.) 12 Auripigmentum, orpiment, quando simpliciter de citrino intelligitur. 1486 Bk. St. Albans B v, Powdre of orpement blowen uppon an hawke. 1545 Rates of Customs c j, Orpmente the C. pounde xs. 1577 Harrison England iii. x. (1878) ii. 67 We haue in England great plentie of quicke siluer, antimonie, sulphur, blacke lead, and orpiment red and yellow. 1646 Sir T. Browne Pseud. Ep. 90 Arsenick red and yellow, that is, Orpement and Sandarach may perhaps doe something. 1683 Moxon Mech. Exerc., Printing xxiv. ¶17 Orpment, Pinck, Yellow Oaker, for Yellow. 1777 Phil. Trans. LXV. 393 The other colours I tried were orpiment, gamboge,..and a few others. 1831 Brewster Optics xvi. 140 A thin plate of native yellow orpiment absorbs the violet and refrangible blue rays very powerfully. 1969 R. L. S. Bruce-Mitford Art of Codex Amiatinus 3 The third leaf, a purple-stained folio with text written in yellow orpiment (not gold), carried on its recto and verso respectively a prologue and a table of contents. |
Hence orpiˈmental a., of the nature of orpiment.
| 1685 Boyle Salubr. Air 62 Orpimental or other noxious Minerals. |