sal-gem Now rare or Obs.
(ˈsælˌdʒɛm)
Also 4–9 gemme, 5–8 -geme, 7 gemm; and in L. form.
[ad. med.L. sal gemma or gemmæ, lit. ‘gem-like salt’. Cf. F. sel gemme.]
Native chloride of sodium; rock-salt.
| c 1325 [see sal-ammoniac]. c 1450 M.E. Med. Bk. (Heinrich) 99 Poudres of sal gemme. 1471 Ripley Comp. Alch. Adm. v. in Ashm. (1652) 190 Sal Tarter, sal Comyn, sal Geme most clere. c 1550 Lloyd Treas. Health E iv, Make pouder of Roses suger and salgem. 1646 Sir T. Browne Pseud. Ep. vi. xii. 336 No other salt that I know will strike the colour with galles; neither Alom, Sal-gemme, Nitre, nor Armoniack. 1718 Quincy Compl. Disp. 9 That which is termed fossile Salt, or Sal Gemma. 1836 T. Thomson Min. Geol., etc. I. 100 Rock salt, sal-gemme, muriate of soda. 1852 Th. Ross tr. Humboldt's Trav. I. i. 8 The interior of Spain forms a vast plain,..covered with secondary formations, grit-stone, gypsum, salgem. 1867 Bloxam Chem. 262 Perfectly pure specimens [of rock-salt]..are styled sal gem. |