| 释义 |
orichalc|ˈɒrɪkælk|
Also 6 oricalche, 7 -chalch; and in Lat. form orichalcum (also 7 aurichalc(h)um).
[ad. L. orīchalc-um, a. Gr. ὀρείχαλκον, lit. ‘mountain-copper’, f. ὄρος, ὄρε- mountain + χαλκός copper, applied to a yellow copper ore or brass. In later L. made into aurichalcum, after L. aurum gold, as if ‘golden copper’.]
Some yellow ore or alloy of copper, highly prized by the ancients; perhaps brass.
Applied by Strabo to brass, though some Greek writers treated ὀρείχαλκον as a fabulous metal; in the Middle Ages, aurichalcum is often mentioned as a very precious metal known only by report.
1590Spenser Muiopot. 78 The metall was of rare and passing price; Not Bilbo steele, nor brasse from Corinth fet, Nor costly Oricalche from strange Phœnice. 1646Sir T. Browne Pseud. Ep. ii. iv, Their electrum,..a substance now as unknown as true aurichalcum, or Corinthian brass. 1661Darnell Corr. I. Basire (1831) 195 Several boxes of Orichalch. 1670Phil. Trans. V. 2036 Of Copper,..together with a discourse of the Native and Factitious Orichalchum. 1785Bp. Watson in Mem. Lit. & Phil. Soc. Manch. II. 47 On Orichalcum. 1855Singleton Virgil II. xii. 485 Then he..dons his coat of mail, With gold and sheeny orichalcum crisp. 1867J. B. Rose tr. Virgil's æneid 348 Breastplate..rough with mingled orichalc and gold. |