a. Also 6 sulphureus, 8 sulfureous. [f. L. sulphureus, f. sulphur: see SULPHUR sb. and -EOUS. Cf. It., Sp., Pg. sulfureo.]
1. Of or pertaining to sulphur; full of, containing or consisting of sulphur.
In the first two quots. the reference is to SULPHUR sb. 2.
1626. Bacon, Sylva, § 354. There bee two Great Families of Things … Sulphureous and Mercuriall.
1646. Sir T. Browne, Pseud. Ep., VI. xii. 335. So doth fire cleanse and purifie bodies, because it consumes the sulphureous parts, which before did make them foule.
a. 1691. Boyle, Hist. Air (1692), 60. A very sulphureous Soil.
1731. in 10th Rep. Hist. MSS. Comm., App. I. 270. The Millypedes or Wood-lice have a sulphureous spirit in them wch I have known do wonders on weak constitutions.
1774. Goldsm., Nat. Hist. (1862), I. viii. 36. Any sulphureous substance, mixed with iron, produces a very great heat by the admission of water.
1807. Byron, Elegy on Newstead Abbey, xv. War’s dread machines … dart destruction in sulphureous showers.
1842. Loudon, Suburban Hort., 217. Where the air is heated by smoke-flues or by fermenting stable dung, it may be charged with sulphureous or other noxious gases.
1875. E. White, Life in Christ, IV. xxiv. (1878), 386. The sulphureous rain [fire and brimstone] destroyed them all!
b. Of sulphur springs or waters.
1608. Topsell, Serpents, 34. Those sulphureous Bathes which were neere vnto Cameriacum.
a. 1700. Evelyn, Diary, 4 Nov. 1644. Neere the towne is a sulphureous fountaine which continualy boils.
1792. A. Young, Trav. France, I. 25. The patients lie up to their chins in hot sulphureous water.
1797. Underwood, Dis. Childhood, I. 99. The Harrowgate, or any other sulphureous water will have a good effect.
1835. Cycl. Pract. Med., IV. 479/1. Sulphureous mineral waters have been so named from the sulphuretted hydrogen gas with which they are impregnated.
1911. Encycl. Brit., XXVI. 61/1. Natural sulphureous waters, especially hot springs, readily deposit sulphur.
† c. Old Path. Consisting of ‘sulphur’ as one of the principles of matter; (of disease) arising from ‘sulphurous’ matter.
1625. Hart, Anat. Ur., II. x. 120. Such diseases as haue their originall from this Sulphureous and salt matter. Ibid. Some sulphureous, Mercuriall, or saltish and tartareous disease.
1688. R. Holme, Armoury, III. xii. 439/2. Cholagoga, medicines that purge Sulphureous and Bilious humours.
1702. J. Purcell, Cholick (1714), 141. The Curative Indications in this Cause are, to divide and break asunder the Sulphureous Filaments, and ill digested Particles of the Aliments.
2. Derived or emanating from sulphur; hence, having the qualities associated with (burning) sulphur; applied chiefly to cloud, smoke, odor.
a. 1552. Leland, Itin. (1907), II. 142. The water of the baynes … having sumwhat a sulphureus and sumwhat onpleasant savor.
1594. Nashe, Terrors of Night, Wks. 1904, I. 360. A sulphureous stinking smoak.
a. 1700. Evelyn, Diary, 7 Feb. 1645. Gaping … chasms, out of which issued such sulphureous blasts and smoke [etc.].
1700. Dryden, Ovid’s Met., XV. 509. Ætna vomiting sulphureous Fire.
1725. Pope, Odyss., XII. 492. Sulphureous odours rose, and smould’ring smoke.
a. 1774. Goldsm., Surv. Exp. Philos. (1776), I. 56. The flash is sudden, the noise is loud, a sulphureous smell ensues.
1842. Loudon, Suburban Hort., 201. No sulphureous or other disagreeable effluvium is ever given out by hot-water pipes when they become leaky, as is the case with flues when they are not air-tight.
1866. Herschel, Fam. Lect. Sci., 22. The dense sulphureous vapour that swept down from the mountain.
b. Thundery. rare. (Cf. SULPHUROUS 2 b.)
1751. Earl Orrery, Rem. Swift (1752), 58. King William in hopes to dispel this sulphureous body of clouds [etc.].
3. allusively and fig. † a. Hellish, satanic. Obs.
[1624. T. Taylor, 2 Serm., ii. 24. We … remember not that they digged a sulphureous pit in 1605, wide enough to swallow three whole kingdomes.]
1644. Vicars, God in Mount, 202. The sulphureous and sanguineous or bloody order and fraternity of Romish Jesuites.
b. Full of the ‘sulphur’ of hell.
1791. Hampson, Mem. J. Wesley, II. 69. Hell and damnation has been denounced … in a stile so horribly sulphureous, that [etc.].
1865. Pall Mall Gaz., 22 April, 1. They would be under the absolute sway of the most sulphureous preacher of the neighbourhood.
4. Sulphur-colored; sulphur-yellow. Also, of the bluish color of the flame with which sulphur burns.
1656. Blount, Glossogr., Sulphureous,… of the colour of Sulphur or Brimston.
1794. Mrs. Radcliffe, Myst. Udolpho, xxix. The accumulating clouds … assumed a red sulphureous tinge that foretold a violent storm.
1796. Southey, Donica, xxvi. The hallow’d tapers dimly stream’d A pale sulphureous light.
1821. Joanna Baillie, Metr. Leg., Ghost of Fadon, xxix. Till the flame … burn’d Of clear sulphureous blue.
1826. Kirby & Sp., Entomol., IV. xlvi. 279. Sulphureous (Sulphureus). Yellow with a tint of green.
1865. Livingstone, Zambesi, xii. 258. The evening sun imparts a sulphureous hue.
† 5. Chem. Sulphureous acid (gas):—sulphurous acid (gas). Sulphureous hydrogen: sulphuretted hydrogen. Sulphureous salt (see quot. 1790). Sulphureous spirit: ? sulphur dioxide. Obs.
1704. J. Harris, Lex. Techn., s.v., After the Spirit and Oil of Vitriol are in distillation of that Mineral, driven out by a most Violent Fire … into the Receiver. They commonly Rectifie the Matter in a Glass Body; and the first Spirit that rises then with a very gentle degree of Fire, is called the Sulphureous Spirit of Vitriol.
1789. J. K[eir], 1st Pt. Dict. Chem., 6/2. The sulphureous acid, and the marine dephlogisticated acid destroy vegetable colours, and change them to white.
1790. Kerr, trans. Lavoisier’s Elem. Chem., 222, note. The only one of these salts known to the old chemists was the sulphite of potash, under the name of Stahl’s sulphureous salt.
1794. Pearson, trans. Morveau’s Chem. Nomencl., 4. The word Sulfite denotes compounds consisting of the Sulphureous Acid and each of the above twenty-six different kinds of substances. Ibid., 30. Sulphur, which by combining with Oxygen and Caloric produces sulphureous Acid Gaz.
1806. Gazetteer Scot. (ed. 2), 297/2. Springs, one of which is impregnated with sulphureous hydrogen gas.
1812. Sir H. Davy, Chem. Philos., Wks. 1840, IV. 23. He [sc. Stahl] discovered … the nature of sulphureous acid.
Hence Sulphureously adv., Sulphureousness.
1677. [see SULPHURIOUSLY adv. quot. 1638].
1690. T. Burnet, Th. Earth, III. x. II. 83. Sulphureousness of the Soil.
a. 1701. Maundrell, Journ. Jerus. (1721), 84. The Sulphureousness of its Smell and Taste.
1727. S. Hales, Statical Ess. (1731), I. 311. In proportion to the sulphureousness and thickness of those fumes.
1906. Westm. Gaz., 7 Sept., 2/1. The air still smelt sulphureously.
