calamine
- a pink, water-insoluble powder consisting of zinc oxide and about 0.5 percent ferric oxide, used in ointments, lotions, or the like, for the treatment of inflammatory conditions of the skin.
- Mineralogy. hemimorphite.
- Chiefly British. smithsonite.
Origin of calamine
Examples from the Web for calamine
Historical Examples of calamine
Three parts of copper were used for three of calamine and two of charcoal.
Early brass was copper mixed with calamine melted in a crucible.
Chats on Old Copper and BrassFred. W. Burgess
Smithsonite is a carbonate much resembling, and often found with, calamine.
The A B C of MiningCharles A. Bramble
The systematic distillation of zinc from calamine was not discovered in Europe until the 18th Century.
De Re MetallicaGeorgius Agricola
Calamine, kal′a-mīn, n. an ore consisting essentially of carbonate of zinc.
calamine
- a pink powder consisting of zinc oxide and ferric oxide, (iron(III) oxide), used medicinally in the form of soothing lotions or ointments
- US another name for smithsonite, hemimorphite
Word Origin for calamine
Word Origin and History for calamine
zinc carbonate; zinc silicate, 1590s, from French calamine, from Old French calemine, chalemine (13c.), from Medieval Latin calamina, corrupted by alchemists from Latin cadmia "zinc ore," from Greek kadmeia (see cadmium). Or possibly the Medieval Latin word is from Latin calamus "reed," in reference to the mineral's shape.
calamine
(kăl′ə-mīn′, -mĭn)- A pink, odorless, tasteless powder of zinc oxide with a small amount of ferric oxide, dissolved in mineral oils and used in skin lotions.