orpiment

American  

[awr-puh-muhnt] / ˈɔr pə mənt /

noun

1. a mineral, arsenic trisulfide, As 2 S 3 , found usually in soft, yellow, foliated masses, used as a pigment.

---

orpiment British  

/ ˈɔːpɪmənt /

noun

1. a yellow mineral consisting of arsenic trisulphide in monoclinic crystalline form occurring in association with realgar: it is an ore of arsenic. Formula: As 2 S 3

---

Etymology

Origin of orpiment

1350–1400; Middle English < Old French < Latin auripigmentum pigment of gold; auri- ¹, pigment

Example Sentences

He thought of himself as a reformer—manufacturing fresh reds, greens, and yellows to replace older, toxic pigments like cinnabar and orpiment.

From The New Yorker • Aug. 27, 2018

I stuck my head inside a cabinet to get a close look at the rocks of the arsenic sulfides realgar and orpiment, blazes of flame orange locked within the crystals.

From The New Yorker • Aug. 27, 2018

Then José Arcadio Buendía threw three doubloons into a pan and fused them with copper filings, orpiment, brimstone, and lead.

From "One Hundred Years of Solitude" by Gabriel Garcia Marquez

As orpiment is poisonous, it would be better to use a few drops of vitriolic acid for this purpose, which should be introduced into a small quantity of the suspected liquor.

From The Cook and Housekeeper's Complete and Universal Dictionary; Including a System of Modern Cookery, in all Its Various Branches, Adapted to the Use of Private Families by Eaton, Mary, fl. 1823-1849

As third class pigments, or the fugitive, must be ranked Mutrie yellow and other lemon cadmiums, the true gallstone, Indian yellow, the lakes, orpiment, Gelbin's yellow, massicot, patent yellow, and turbith mineral.

From Field's Chromatography or Treatise on Colours and Pigments as Used by Artists by Salter, Thomas