Citations:phosphorus

From Wiktionary, the free dictionary
Jump to navigation Jump to search

English citations of phosphorus

Noun: "a substance which is luminous without combustion"

[edit]
1898
ME « 15th c. 16th c. 17th c. 18th c. 19th c. 20th c. 21st c.
  • 1895, Park Benjamin, The intellectual rise in electricity: a history, New York: Appleton, →OCLC, page 455:
    Bernouilli made up his mind that here was a way of producing light naturally, without the aid of any chemical phosphorus at all; but as the word "phosphorus" was then applied to any substance which became luminous without combustion, he called Picard's phenomenon the " mercurial phosphorus," and, in June, 1700, gives the results of his own experiments on the subject in a letter to Varignon, []
  • 1984, Joseph T. Shipley, “bher I”, in The origins of English words: a discursive dictionary of Indo-European roots, Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, →ISBN, page 35:
    Suffixes [] phorus, as in [] phosphorus: light-bearer, being phosphorescent; [] Phosphor is a poetic name for the morning star. phosphene: seeing stars, the impression of light from pressure on the eye.

Noun: "chemical element"

[edit]
1895 1898 1919 1920 1988 2002
ME « 15th c. 16th c. 17th c. 18th c. 19th c. 20th c. 21st c.
  • 1895, Park Benjamin, The intellectual rise in electricity: a history, New York: Appleton, →OCLC, pages 454–455:
    Brand, of Germany, produced a light-giving substance from animal excretions, and sold the secret of its manufacture to Krafft. Krafft named it "phosphorus" and took it to England, [] In Germany, Kunkel, who learned of it from Krafft, published, in 1678, a pamphlet describing it, [] It was termed "phosphorus mirabilis," "phosphorus igneus," and sometimes "light magnet"—although the last name is often also applied to the Bologna stone.
  • 1898 August 11, “Phosphorus in Lucifer Matches”, in Nature, volume 58, number 1502, →DOI, →ISSN, page 345:
    The word phosphorus was originally applied to any substance, solid or liquid, which had the property of shining in the dark, and the characters of the various phosphori up to that time known were made the subject of inquiry by Robert Boyle, about the middle of the seventeenth century. The term has, however, practically lost its generic sense, and has become restricted to the wax-like substance discovered by Brand, of Hamburg, in 1674, and which was originally known as the noctiluca or the phosphorus mirabilis.
  • 1919, George Senter, A text-book of inorganic chemistry, 5th edition, London: Methuen, →OCLC, page 238:
    The name "phosphorus" was at that time used to designate any substance which glowed in the dark, and the element now under consideration was known as Brand's phosphorus, or phosphorus mirabilis.
  • 1920, Henry Enfield Roscoe, Carl Schorlemmer, “Phosphorus”, in John Cannell Cain, editor, A treatise on chemistry, 5th edition, volume 1, London: Macmillan, →OCLC, pages 617–618:
    The name phosphorus (Φώς, light, and Φέρω, I bear) was originally used to designate any substance which was capable of becoming luminous in the dark. The first chemical substance in which this property was noticed was termed Bononian or Bolognian phosphorus (see barium sulphide). In order to distinguish true phosphorus from this body, the name of phosphorus mirabilis or phosphorus igneus was given to it. In the eighteenth century it was usually termed Brand's, Kunckel's, or Boyle's phosphorus, or sometimes English phosphorus, because it was then prepared in London by Hankwitz in quantity according to Boyle's receipt.
  • 1988, Joseph Shapiro, “Introductory lecture at the international symposium 'Phosphorus in freshwater ecosystems', Uppsala, Sweden in October 1985”, in Phosphorus in Freshwater Ecosystems, Developments in hydrobiology, volume 48, Springer:
    [] was then called phosphorous, a generic term meaning, 'I bear light', which was applied to all substances which glowed in the dark. Later the name was restricted to phosphorus which orginally was called phosphorus mirabilis.
  • 2002, A. M. Jimenez, M. J. Navas, “Chemiluminescence methods (present and future)”, in Grasas y Aceites, volume 53, number 1, Madrid: Instituto de la Grasa y sus Derivados, →DOI, →ISSN, page 64:
    Luminescent reactions has been observed since ancient time, luminous animals are known in the Greek civilisation, however the first report of artificial chemiluminescence occurred in 1669. The German physician Henning Brand isolated from urine a substance that glowed continuously in the dark. He called the substance “phosphorus mirabilis”, and it is better known today as white phosphorus (Barnett and Lewis, 1996).
  • 2013 June, Christopher J. Rhodes, “Peak phosphorus – peak food? The need to close the phosphorus cycle”, in Science Progress, volume 96, number 2, Science Reviews 2000, →DOI, →ISSN:
    As an alchemist, Brand hoped to obtain gold, but instead produced a white, waxy substance that glowed in the dark, which he termed phosphorus mirabilis (“miraculous bearer of light”). From around 1,100 litres of urine, Brand probably obtained 60 g of phosphorus.
  • 2013, Paul A. Jones, “Ten words derived from light”, in Haggard hawks and paltry poltroons : the origins of English in ten words, London: Constable, →ISBN, unnumbered page:
    In English, however, the first recorded use of the word phosphorus was not in reference to the element but rather as a proper noun, Phosphorus, which was used as an alternative name for the Morning Star by astronomers in the late sixteenth century.