Forms: 5–7 coperose, (5 coperosse, coporose, copros(se, 6 coperus, cop(p)erous(e, coporouse, (copper(r)oost(e), copporose), 6–7 coperas, cop(p)eress(e, -is, -ose, cop(p)oras, -es, -is, cop(p)ras, -es(se, 7 cop(p)erase, -ass, ice, cop(p)ris, -ice, -ose, 6– copperas. [In 15th c. coperose: cf. F. couperose (14th c. in Littré), coupperose, It. copparosa, med.L. cuperosa, cuprosa, coporosa, in various early glossaries: see esp. Grimm, s.v. Kupferrose.
Diez explained cuperosa, as = *cupri rosa rose of copper, comparing the Gr. name χάλκανθον, -ος lit. ‘flower of copper.’ It seems more probable that med.L. cuprosa, cuperosa was simply short for *aqua cuprosa = Ger. kupferwasser, Du. koperwater, and its association with rosa ‘rose’ merely an etymological fancy. That it was so understood is certain: cf. Kilian (Flemish 1599) ‘Koper-roose, Koperwater, chalcantum, vitriolum, vulgo cuperosa and coppa rosa’; and obs. Ger. kupferrose = kupferwasser (Henisch); also mod.Du. koperrood copper-red, obs. Ger. kupferroth, LG. koperrôt. See the many forms in German under kupferrauch, -rose, -roth, rusz, -wasser, in Grimm. In F., couperose is also applied with more descriptive propriety to the disease copper nose; so in Ger. ‘eine kupferrote nase’ (Grimm).]
1. A name given from early times to the proto-sulphates of copper, iron and, zinc (distinguished as blue, green, and white copperas, respectively); etymologically it belonged properly to the copper salt; but in English use, when undistinguished by attribute or context, it has always been most commonly, and is now exclusively, applied to green copperas, the proto-sulphate of iron or ferrous sulphate (Fe So4), also called green vitriol, used in dyeing, tanning, and making ink.
(The extension of the name beyond its etymological meaning is anterior to its appearance in English, and indeed inherited from Gr. χάλκανθον, the description of which by Dioscorides gives prominence to blue vitriol, while its use as shoemaker’s ink implies green vitriol; the same is true of Pliny’s account of chalcanthum. It is probable that, at all times, the occurrence of composite salts containing a variable proportion of copper and iron, as well as the failure to distinguish between copper and iron pyrites, contributed to the confusion. It has to be remembered also that from the mediæval point of view ‘copperas’ was a species, occurring in various colors, the difference of composition being only vaguely apprehended, and that the phenomenon of the dissolving of iron by a solution of green copperas, with deposition of its copper, was explained as conversion of iron into copper by the mediation of the ‘copperas,’ which changed its color from blue to green in the process.)
† a. generically or vaguely. Obs.
c. 1440. Promp. Parv., 91. Coperose, vitriola.
c. 1450. Voc., in Wr.-Wülcker, 579/24. Draganti, vytryole, or coporose.
1565–73. Cooper, Thesaurus, Chalcanthum … coperas, or vitrioll.
1577. Harrison, England, III. x. (1878), II. 68. The chrysocolla, coperis, and minerall stone.
1594. Plat, Jewell-ho., I. 10. Coppres is a salt … vitrial is a salt, allom is a salt.
1612. Sturtevant, Metallica (1854), 55. Making of salts, alloms, coppresses, and saltpetre.
1646. Sir T. Browne, Pseud. Ep., VI. xii. 336. Artificiall copperose … is a … salt drawne out of ferreous and eruginous earths, partaking chiefly of Iron and Copper, the blew of copper, the green most of Iron.
1727–51. Chambers, Cycl., s.v., There is copperas of England, of Pisa, Germany, Cyprus, Hungary and Italy, which differ from each other in colour, richness, and perfection…. The English copperas is of a fine green; that of Cyprus and Hungary is of a sky blue, and has copper for its basis.
b. Protosulphate of iron: more fully Green copperas.
1502. Arnolde, Chron. (1811), 234. Coporose blank, ij. d’. Coporose vert, at vi. s’. viij. d’.
1565. Act 8 Eliz., c. 11 § 3. No Person … shall dye … black, any Cap … but only with Copperas and Gall.
1577. Wills & Inv. N. C. (Surtees), II. 414. A hundrethe and a halff of grene copperous.
1605. B. Jonson, Volpone, Prol. All gall and coppresse from his inke he drayneth.
1646. Sir T. Browne, Pseud. Ep., 336. Inke … made, by copperose cast upon a decoction or infusion of galls.
1681. Chetham, Angler’s Vade-m., ii. § 4 (1689), 9. Half a Pound of green Copperas.
1727–51. Chambers, Cycl., Copperas, a name given to vitriol, particularly to vitriol of iron.
1832. G. R. Porter, Porcelain & Gl., 114. The red colour used by the Chinese is made from common green vitriol or copperas.
1876. Page, Adv. Text-bk. Geol., xiv. 252. Sufficiently pyritous to be used in the preparation of copperas and sulphuric acid.
† c. Protosulphate of copper: Blue copperas.
1612. Woodall, Surg. Mate, Wks. (1653), 211. The best Copperas … is made of Copper, or of the Mineral of copper. Ibid., 212. The best kind of Copperas … is in colour of a pleasant blew.
1650. Sir T. Browne, Pseud. Ep., II. ii. (1686), 49. The Common Conversion of Iron into Copper by the Mediation of blew Coperose.
1678. R. R[ussell], trans. Geber, III. II. II. xiii. 199. Vitriol and Copperas, which also is called Gum of Copper.
d. Protosulphate of zinc: White copperas.
1464. Mann. & Househ. Exp., 280. For medesen for you, take a lytell whyte coperosse.
1544. Phaër, Regim. Life (1553), C iij b. Take the bignesse of a nutte of whyte coperose … and pouder it.
1607. Topsell, Four-f. Beasts (1673), 280. White copperas, one ounce.
1751. Chambers, Cycl., White copperas is a vitriol of iron, with a mixture of some other mineral, brought from Germany in cakes of 40 or 50 pounds each.
1825. J. Nicholson, Operat. Mechanic, 640. A very … useful [dryer] … is made by grinding in linseed … about two parts of the best white copperas.
2. Min. Applied generically to a group of native hydrous sulphates, comprising ordinary or Green copperas (Melanterite), ordinary White copperas (Goslarite), Blue copperas (Chalcanthite), Pisanite, a sulphate of iron and copper of bright blue color, Bieberite or cobalt vitriol, Morenosite or nickel vitriol, and Coquimbite, a native ferric sulphate, also called White copperas. Yellow copperas is a name of Copiapite, a sulphur or citron-colored sulphate of iron.
1868. Dana, Min., 645. Copperas group: the species here included are the ordinary vitriols.
3. attrib. and Comb., as copperas bag, fume, vein, etc.; copperas-maker, -work(s; also COPPERAS-STONE.
1639. J. Mayne, City Match, III. iii. 33 (N.).
| I know you’l not endure to see my Jack | |
| Goe empty, nor weare shirts of *Copprice bags. |
1839. Carlyle, Chartism, iv. 132. A … Tophet, of *copperas-fumes.
1604–5. Canterbury Marriage Licences (MS.), Owen Jones de Whitstable, *copprismaker.
1601. Holland, Pliny, II. 510. This Vitrioll is ingendred many waies of the *copperesse vein within the mine.
1612. Drayton, Poly-olb., II. 27. Enricht with coppras vaines.
1634. Brereton, Trav. (1844), 2. Here was a most ingenious *copperas work erected.
1691. T. H[ale], Acc. New Invent., 99. Vessels for Brewers, Dyers, Coperas-works, Dairies, [etc.].
