Forms: 5 malgam, amalgame, (7 amalagma), 5–9 amalgama, 5– amalgam. [a. Fr. amalgame (15th c. in Litt.), and, in the formerly common amalgama, of med.L., in which the word was in regular alchemical use in 13th c. Usually taken as a perversion of L. malagma (in Pliny and the physicians) a mollifying poultice or plaster, a. Gr. μάλαγμα an emollient, f. μαλάσσ-ειν (stem μαλακ-) to soften; or of an Arabic adaptation of μάλαγμα with prefixed al- (as in al-chemy, al-embic, etc.): see the form (of the vb.) almalgamynge in one MS. of Chaucer, and algamala in Du Cange. Bacon’s spelling amalagma was refashioned after malagma. Other early writers associated it with Gr. ἄμα together, and γάμος marriage. Devic (Littré Suppl.) suggests a direct Arabic derivation, taking an early variant algame as ad. Arab. al-jamsa (orig. al-gamsa) union, conjunction, f. jamasa to unite, and conjecturing for amalgame samal al-jamsa ‘the operation of conjunction,’ or al-mojāmsa marriage union. But no instance of the use of these, as chemical terms, is cited from Arabic writers.]
1. orig. A soft mass formed by chemical manipulation, esp. a soft or plastic condition of gold, silver, etc., produced by combination with mercury; hence, now, any mixture of a metal with mercury, a mercurial alloy, as gold amalgam, copper amalgam, etc.
1471. Ripley, Comp. Alch., in Ashm., Theatr. Chem., 1652, IX. 174. When the Medcyn as wax doth flowe, Than uppon Malgams loke thou hyt throw. Ibid., 191. Many Amalgame dyd I make.
1599. A. M., trans. Gabelhouer’s Bk. Physic, 380/1. Beete a Ducket verye thinne … put therof j dr. to j oz. of Quicksiluer … The Amalgama must you wash with Saulte and Vineger.
1664. Phil. Trans., I. 23. An Amalgama of Gold and Virgin-Mercury.
1757. Lewis, ibid., L. 156. An amalgam of one part of platina and two of gold with a suitable quantity of mercury.
1782. Kirwan, ibid., LXXII. 217. An amalgama of lead and mercury decrepitates when heated.
1869. Roscoe, Elem. Chem., 214. An amalgam of ammonium can easily be prepared.
Native Amalgam, an amalgam of mercury with silver or gold, found crystalline, massive or semifluid in various countries.
1875. Ure, Dict. Arts, I. 133. A native amalgam of mercury and silver occurs in fine crystals in the mines of Moschellandsberg, in the Palatinate … A gold amalgam is obtained from the platinum region of Columbia.
2. Extended to, An intimate (plastic) mixture or compound of any two or more substances.
1626. Bacon, Sylva, § 99. The Body of the Wood will be turned into a kind of Amalagma.
1650. Ashmole, Arcanum (ed. 3), 252. Let three weights of Red Earth … Water and Aire, well beaten, be mixt together: let an Amalgama be made like Butter, or Metalline Paste.
1828. Kirby & Spence, Entomol., I. xv. 497. The bees sometimes mix wax and propolis and make an amalgam.
3. fig. A complete combination of various elements. Also attrib.
1790. Burke, Fr. Rev., 274. They have attempted to confound all sorts of citizens into one homogeneous mass; and then they divided this their amalgama into … republics.
1823. Hone, Anc. Myst., 187. Custom is an amalgam of sense and folly.
1841. Catlin, N. Amer. Ind., II. lvi. 210. [They] go by the familiar appellation of the amalgam name of ‘Sacs and Foxes.’
1863. Mrs. C. Clarke, Shaksp. Char., ii. 60. Touchstone’s philosophy,—a choice and rich amalgam of sweet temper and untiring humour.
4. An ingredient in an amalgam; an ‘alloy!’
1840. Carlyle, Heroes (1858), 315. Few men were without quackery; they had got to consider it a necessary ingredient and amalgam for truth.
1873. Burton, Hist. Scotl., I. iii. 119. No tin or other amalgam.
