Also 7 bismute, bismuto, bismutum, 8 bizmuth. [a. Ger. bismuth; the present Ger. form is wismuth or wismut, a reversion to wissmuth, the form in which the word first occurs in G. Agricola (1629), though he latinized it as bisemūtum. Derivation unknown.]
One of the elementary bodies; a reddish white metal, found native, and also in combination in numerous ores; it is brittle and melts at a low temperature. (Chemically, Bismuth (Bi) is closely allied to ANTIMONY, and is, in different combinations, a triad and a pentad. Its chief use in the arts is as an alloy; the oxide and some salts are used in medicine.)
Acicular B. = AIKINITE, also called needle-ore; † Butter of B., bismuth chloride; Flowers of B., an efflorescence of the oxide on minerals containing metallic bismuth; Magistery of B., White B., the subnitrate or basic nitrate of bismuth, used as a paint and cosmetic under the name of Pearl White, Pearl Powder; Regulus of B., an old name for the metal; Telluric B. (see 2); Mineral B., Native B., bismuth occurring as a brittle mineral in crystals, etc.
1668. Wilkins, Real Char., 66. Imperfect kinds of Metal … used for Making of Pewter, being of shining brittle substance: Bismute, Tin-glass.
1674. Phil. Trans., IX. 189. In the mountains of Sudnos in Bohemia there was some years ago found a metal, by them called Bismuto.
1678. Phillips, Bismutum, that which is called Tinglosse, differing both from Tin and Lead.
1755. Gentl. Mag., XXV. 454. It perfectly resists the destructive power of lead, bismuth, and the antimonial semi metal.
1870. R. Ferguson, Electr., 42. Among diamagnetic substances is bismuth.
b. attrib. Of or combined with bismuth, as bismuth alloys, compounds, ores, salts, etc.; esp. in Chem., in systematic names of compounds, as bismuth carbonate, pentoxide, silicate, trisulphide; and in Min., bismuth-blende, native silicate of bismuth or EULYTITE; bismuth-glance = BISMUTHINITE; bismuth-nickel, a native ore of bismuth and nickel in union with sulphur, = GRÜNAUITE; bismuth-ochre, the native oxide of bismuth, = BISMITE; bismuth-silver, a native alloy of bismuth and silver, Ag.6 Bi, = CHILENITE; bismuth-tellurium (telluric bismuth), a native alloy, Bi2Te2, = TETRADYMITE.
1847. E. Seymour, Severe Dis., I. 8. I recommended the bismuth mixture.
1863. Watts, Dict. Chem., I. 597. A bismuth-silver from the mine of San Antonio, Chili.
1869. Daily News, 12 June, 5/5. 12 June. Those wondrous demoiselles with low hair, bismuth eyebrows, and the neatest little Maltese terrier peeping from the top of the door.
