calomel
pronunciation
How to pronounce calomel in British English:
UK ['kæləmel]
How to pronounce calomel in American English:
US ['kæləˌmel]
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- Noun:
- a tasteless colorless powder used medicinally as a cathartic
Word Origin
- calomel (n.)
- old name for mercurous chloride, 1670s, from French calomel, supposedly (Littré) from Greek kalos "fair" (see Callisto) + melas "black;" but as the powder is yellowish-white this seems difficult. "It is perhaps of significance that the salt is blackened by ammonia and alkalis" [Flood].
Example
- 1. So , increase the calomel to twice a day .
- 2. The calomel electrode has a small pinhole opening or wick .
- 3. Already the hospitals were worrying about the scarcity of quinine , calomel , opium , chloroform and iodine .
- 4. She was treated with calomel , a mercury compound , and this treatment gave her mercury poisoning .
- 5. We can measure the calcium content of the colored or turbid drink using the method of taking calcium electrode as indicator electrode , and calomel electrode as reference electrode .