s for antimony
Antimony(III) sulfide, , was recognized in
predynastic Egypt as an eye cosmetic (
kohl) as early as about
3100 BC, when the
cosmetic palette was invented. An artifact, said to be part of a vase, made of antimony dating to about 3000 BC was found at
Telloh,
Chaldea (part of present-day Iraq), and a copper object plated with antimony dating between 2500 BC and 2200 BC has been found in
Egypt. The British archaeologist
Roger Moorey was unconvinced the artifact was indeed a vase, mentioning that Selimkhanov, after his analysis of the Tello object (published in 1975), "attempted to relate the metal to Transcaucasian natural antimony" (i.e. native metal) and that "the antimony objects from Transcaucasia are all small personal ornaments." Pliny the Elder also made a distinction between "male" and "female" forms of antimony; the male form is probably the sulfide, while the female form, which is superior, heavier, and less
friable, has been suspected to be native metallic antimony. The Greek naturalist
Pedanius Dioscorides mentioned that antimony sulfide could be roasted by heating by a current of air. It is thought that this produced metallic antimony. A description of a procedure for isolating antimony is later given in the 1540 book
De la pirotechnia by
Vannoccio Biringuccio, predating the more famous 1556 book by
Agricola,
De re metallica. In this context Agricola has been often incorrectly credited with the discovery of metallic antimony. The book
Currus Triumphalis Antimonii (The Triumphal Chariot of Antimony), describing the preparation of metallic antimony, was published in Germany in 1604. It was purported to be written by a
Benedictine monk, writing under the name
Basilius Valentinus in the 15th century; if it were authentic, which it is not, it would predate Biringuccio. The metal antimony was known to German chemist
Andreas Libavius in 1615 who obtained it by adding iron to a molten mixture of antimony sulfide, salt, and potassium
tartrate. This procedure produced antimony with a crystalline or starred surface. Coins of antimony were issued in China's
Guizhou in 1931; durability was poor, and minting was soon discontinued because of its softness and toxicity.
Etymology The
medieval Latin form, from which the modern languages and late
Byzantine Greek take their names for antimony, is ''
. The origin of that is uncertain, and all suggestions have some difficulty either of form or interpretation. The popular etymology, from ἀντίμοναχός anti-monachos'' or French , would mean "monk-killer", which is explained by the fact that many early
alchemists were monks, and some antimony compounds were poisonous. Another popular etymology is the hypothetical Greek word ἀντίμόνος
antimonos, "against aloneness", explained as "not found as metal", or "not found unalloyed". However, ancient Greek would more naturally express the pure negative as
α- ("not").
Edmund Oscar von Lippmann conjectured a hypothetical Greek word ανθήμόνιον
anthemonion, which would mean "floret", and cites several examples of related Greek words (but not that one) which describe chemical or biological
efflorescence. The early uses of
antimonium include the translations, in 1050–1100, by
Constantine the African of Arabic medical treatises. other possibilities include
athimar, the Arabic name of the metalloid, and a hypothetical
as-stimmi, derived from or parallel to the Greek. The standard chemical symbol for antimony (Sb) is credited to
Jöns Jakob Berzelius, who derived the abbreviation from
stibium. The ancient words for antimony mostly have, as their chief meaning
kohl, the sulfide of antimony. The Egyptians called antimony
mśdmt or
stm. The Arabic word for the substance, as opposed to the cosmetic, can appear as
ithmid, athmoud, othmod, or
uthmod.
Littré suggests the first form, which is the earliest, derives from
stimmida, an accusative for
stimmi. The Greek word στίμμι (stimmi) is used by
Attic tragic poets of the 5th century BC, and is possibly a loan word from Arabic or from Egyptian
stm. ==Production==