white lead

Hello, you have come here looking for the meaning of the word white lead. In DICTIOUS you will not only get to know all the dictionary meanings for the word white lead, but we will also tell you about its etymology, its characteristics and you will know how to say white lead in singular and plural. Everything you need to know about the word white lead you have here. The definition of the word white lead will help you to be more precise and correct when speaking or writing your texts. Knowing the definition ofwhite lead, as well as those of other words, enriches your vocabulary and provides you with more and better linguistic resources.

English

English Wikipedia has an article on:
Wikipedia

Alternative forms

Etymology

In the sense of tin, calque of Latin plumbum album (tin, literally white lead) already used before our era, as well as plumbum candidum (tin, literally white-shining lead) and Arabic رَصَاص أَبْيَض (raṣāṣ ʔabyaḍ, tin, literally white lead), distinguished from plumbum nigrum (lead, literally black lead) / رَصَاص أَسْوَد (raṣāṣ ʔaswad, lead, literally black lead), as tin and lead were improperly distinguished before modernity.

Noun

white lead (uncountable)

  1. (obsolete) Tin, golden marcasite.
    • 1671, John Webster, Metallographia: Or, an history of metals., London, page 271:
      It is not amiſs here to give the differences betwixt white Lead, or Tin, Biſmuth, Tin-glaſs, or aſh-coloured Lead, and this common Lead, which they call black Lead;
  2. A basic lead carbonate, particularly (historical) as once widely used for white paint, whitening cosmetics, and early medicine.
    Synonyms: lead white, flake white, silver white, slate white, ceruse, Venetian ceruse, Venetian white, (historical, derogatory) white poison
    • 1938, Norman Lindsay, Age of Consent, 1st Australian edition, Sydney, N.S.W.: Ure Smith, published 1962, →OCLC, page 40:
      The beginning of a new episode of work for Bradly was an agitated niggling over six-by-four squares of cardboard coated with size and white lead, prepared by himself to save an experimental waste of canvas.
    • 2021, Judith Rainhorn, The Colour of Controversy..., p. 4:
      Such eminent and renowned scientists as Fourcroy, Berthollet and Vauquelin all enthusiastically supported zinc white, the defects of which "are so slight compared to the disadvantages of using white lead, that its adoption cannot be reasonably refused."

Hyponyms

Coordinate terms

Derived terms

Translations