quicksilver

From Middle English quyk silver, quyksilver, quikselver, from Old English cwicseolfor (“quicksilver”, literally “living silver”) (see Latin argentum vivum) from its ability to move. See quick in the sense of "living". Cognate with Dutch kwikzilver, German Low German Quicksülver, German Quecksilber, Danish kviksølv, Norwegian Bokmål kvikksølv, Swedish kvicksilver. By surface analysis, quick (“living”) +‎ silver.

• (US) enPR: kwĭk'sĭlvər, IPA^(key): /ˈkwɪkˌsɪlvɚ/

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quicksilver (uncountable)

1. The metal mercury.
2. (loosely) An amalgam of mercury and tin applied to the backs of mirrors, quicksilvering.

• For quotations using this term, see Citations:quicksilver.

• (the metal): mercury, hydrargyrum

quicksilver (not comparable)

1. Unpredictable, erratic or fickle; mercurial.
   • 1978 August 19, Kevin Warren, “A Flawless Production”, in Gay Community News, volume 6, number 5, page 15:

     Summer is not the most auspicious season for theater in New York. Aside from a few certifiable Broadway hits, it is, in fact, a rather quicksilver commodity.

   • 2012 April 29, Nathan Rabin, “TV: Review: THE SIMPSONS (CLASSIC): “Treehouse of Horror III” (season 4, episode 5; originally aired 10/29/1992)”, in (Please provide the book title or journal name)‎:

     The idea of a merchant selling both totems of pure evil and frozen yogurt (he calls it frogurt!) is amusing in itself, as is the idea that frogurt could be cursed, but it’s really the Shopkeeper’s quicksilver shift from ominous doomsaying to chipper salesmanship that sells the sequence.

quicksilver (third-person singular simple present quicksilvers, present participle quicksilvering, simple past and past participle quicksilvered)

1. (transitive) To overlay with quicksilver.
2. (transitive) To treat with quicksilver.

• David Barthelmy (1997–2025) “Quicksilver”, in Webmineral Mineralogy Database.
• “quicksilver”, in Mindat.org‎, Hudson Institute of Mineralogy, 2000–2025.
• “quicksilver”, in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, Springfield, Mass.: G. & C. Merriam, 1913, →OCLC.
• William Dwight Whitney and Benjamin E Smith, editors (1914), “quicksilver”, in The Century Dictionary: An Encyclopedic Lexicon of the English Language, revised edition, volumes IV (P–Simulant), New York, N.Y.: The Century Co., →OCLC.