Definition: quicksilver

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Source: WordNet (r) 1.7 

quicksilver
     adj : liable to sudden unpredictable change; "erratic behavior";
           "fickle weather"; "mercurial twists of temperament"; "a
           quicksilver character, cool and willful at one moment,
           utterly fragile the next" [syn: erratic, fickle, mercurial,
            quicksilver]
     n : a heavy silvery toxic univalent and bivalent metallic
         element; the only metal that is liquid at ordinary
         temperatures [syn: mercury, hydrargyrum, Hg, atomic
         number 80]

Source: Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary (1913) 

Mercury \Mer"cu*ry\, n. [L. Mercurius; akin to merx wares.]
   1. (Rom. Myth.) A Latin god of commerce and gain; -- treated
      by the poets as identical with the Greek Hermes, messenger
      of the gods, conductor of souls to the lower world, and
      god of eloquence.

   2. (Chem.) A metallic element mostly obtained by reduction
      from cinnabar, one of its ores. It is a heavy, opaque,
      glistening liquid (commonly called quicksilver), and is
      used in barometers, thermometers, ect. Specific gravity
      13.6. Symbol Hg (Hydrargyrum). Atomic weight 199.8.
      Mercury has a molecule which consists of only one atom. It
      was named by the alchemists after the god Mercury, and
      designated by his symbol, [mercury].

   Note: Mercury forms alloys, called amalgams, with many
         metals, and is thus used in applying tin foil to the
         backs of mirrors, and in extracting gold and silver
         from their ores. It is poisonous, and is used in
         medicine in the free state as in blue pill, and in its
         compounds as calomel, corrosive sublimate, etc. It is
         the only metal which is liquid at ordinary
         temperatures, and it solidifies at about -39[deg]
         Centigrade to a soft, malleable, ductile metal.

   3. (Astron.) One of the planets of the solar system, being
      the one nearest the sun, from which its mean distance is
      about 36,000,000 miles. Its period is 88 days, and its
      diameter 3,000 miles.

   4. A carrier of tidings; a newsboy; a messenger; hence, also,
      a newspaper. --Sir J. Stephen. ``The monthly Mercuries.''
      --Macaulay.

   5. Sprightly or mercurial quality; spirit; mutability;
      fickleness. [Obs.]

            He was so full of mercury that he could not fix long
            in any friendship, or to any design.  --Bp. Burnet.

   6. (Bot.) A plant (Mercurialis annua), of the Spurge
      family, the leaves of which are sometimes used for
      spinach, in Europe.

   Note: The name is also applied, in the United States, to
         certain climbing plants, some of which are poisonous to
         the skin, esp. to the Rhus Toxicodendron, or poison
         ivy.

   Dog's mercury (Bot.), Mercurialis perennis, a perennial
      plant differing from M. annua by having the leaves
      sessile.

   English mercury (Bot.), a kind of goosefoot formerly used
      as a pot herb; -- called Good King Henry.

   Horn mercury (Min.), a mineral chloride of mercury, having
      a semitranslucent, hornlike appearance.
Quicksilver \Quick"sil`ver\, n. [Quick living + silver; -- so
   called from its fluidity; cf. G. quecksilber, L. argentum
   vivum. See Quick, a.] (Chem.)
   The metal mercury; -- so called from its resemblance to
   liquid silver.

   Quicksilver horizon, a mercurial artificial horizon. See
      under Horizon.

   Quicksilver water, a solution of mercury nitrate used in
      artificial silvering; quick water.

Source: The Free On-line Dictionary of Computing (2003-OCT-10) 

Quicksilver

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