mercuric sulfide

American  

Or mercury sulfide

noun

Chemistry.

1. a crystalline, water-insoluble, poisonous compound, HgS, occurring as a coarse, black powder black mercuric sulfide or as a fine, bright-scarlet powder red mercuric sulfide: used chiefly as a pigment and as a source of the free metal.

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Etymology

Origin of mercuric sulfide

First recorded in 1850–55