white lead

English

Alternative forms

• whitelead

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

• Berlin white, China white, French white, Krems white, Kremnitz white, Nottingham white, Vienna white (especially pure white lead paint)

Coordinate terms

• cerussite (white lead ore)
• red lead (another lead mineral used as a pigment)
• titanium dioxide, zinc oxide (other mineral sources of white pigment)

Derived terms

• white lead ore

 

Translations

lead carbonate

• Arabic: سِبِيدَاج m (sibīdāj), بَارُوق m (bārūq), بَيَاض m (bayāḍ) (rare)
• Bengali: সফেদী (śophedi)
• Bulgarian: оловно белило n (olovno belilo)
• Catalan: blanc de plom m, blanquet m
• Danish: please add this translation if you can
• Finnish: lyijyvalkoinen
• French: céruse (fr) f, blanc de plomb (fr) m, blanc de Saturne (fr) m
• German: Bleiweiß (de) n
• Greek:

  Ancient Greek: ψίμυθος m (psímuthos)

• Gujarati: સફેદો (saphedo)
• Hungarian: ólomfehér (hu)
• Irish: luaidhe bhán f
• Italian: bianchetto (it) m, biacca f
• Korean: 연백 (yeonbaek)
• Latin: cērussa f, abarath
• Persian: سپیداب (sepīdāb)
• Polish: blejwas (pl) m
• Portuguese: please add this translation if you can
• Romanian: ceruză (ro) f, alb de plumb (ro) n
• Russian: свинцо́вые бели́ла n pl (svincóvyje belíla)
• Spanish: albayalde (es) m
• Swedish: blyvitt c or n
• Welsh: plwm gwyn m