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amalgam

amal·gam

UK/əˈmæl.ɡəm/ US/ʌˈmælɡʌm/ uncommon archaic

noun

1.

an alloy of mercury with another metal (usually silver) used by dentists to fill cavities in teeth; except for iron and platinum all metals dissolve in mercury and chemists refer to the resulting mercury mixtures as amalgams

Synonyms
2.

a combination or blend of diverse things

  • “his theory is an amalgam of earlier ideas”

Origin

From Medieval Latin amalgama (“mercury alloy”), from Arabic اَلْمَلْغَم (al-malḡam, “emollient poultice or unguent for sores”), from Ancient Greek μάλαγμα (málagma, “emollient; malleable material”), from μαλάσσω (malássō, “to soften”), from μαλακός (malakós, “soft”). Doublet of malagma. For the verb, compare French amalgamer.

Phrases

  • amalgam carrier
  • amalgam gilding
  • amalgam tattoo
  • gold amalgam
  • sodium amalgam

Related words

Word family

Broader terms

WordNet 2.1 (Princeton University). Wiktionary (CC BY-SA). CMU Pronouncing Dictionary. WordNet 2.1 Copyright Princeton University. All rights reserved. Wiktionary content is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike Licence.