| 释义 |
▪ I. borax|ˈbɔəræks|
Forms: 4–7 boras, 5–6 borace, 6 borras, 7 baurac(h, boraxe, 6– borax; pl. (Obs. rare) boraces.
[ME. boˈras, a. OF. boras (borras, bourras), ad. med.L. baurach, borac, boracum, and borax, borac-em, a. Arab. variously pronounced bauraq, būraq, bōraq, prop. ‘natron’, but also ‘borax’: referred by the lexicons to the Arab. bwrq to glisten, but prob. ad. Pers. būrah borax. According to Léman introduced into the Romanic langs. about the 9th c. Cf. Sp. borrax (now written borraj), mod.F. borax, It. borrace.]
1. A native salt; the acid borate of sodium, or biborate of soda (Na2B4O7): having, when pure, the form of a transparent or whitish crystal, or white powder, but also imported as crude borax or tincal, a greenish mass greasy to the touch.
c1386Chaucer Prol. 630 Ther nas quyksilver, litarge, ne brimstone, Boras, ceruce, ne oille of tartre noon. 1483Cath. Angl. 37 Borace, Borax. 1543Traheron Vigo's Chirurg. (1586) 433 Boras, others write it Borax, and Plinie saith, that it is a liquor in pits. 1623Cockeram, Boras, a white substance like salt-peeter wherewith goldsmiths solder gold and siluer. 1678R. R[ussell] Geber i. iii. 9 Glass and boraces. 1684Phil. Trans. XIV. 610 The other species [of Nitre] they term Baurac, which they used in seasoning their meat. 1810Henry Elem. Chem. (1826) I. 566 Tincal, which, when purified, becomes the refined borax of the shops. 1876Harley Mat. Med. 157 Borax is supposed to have been the Chrysocolla of Pliny.
2. borax beads, beads made of borax, used in blowpipe analysis to distinguish the metallic oxides, and test minerals by the characteristic colours which they give in the oxidizing and the reducing flame.
3. borax carmine (see quot. 1890).
1887Amer. Naturalist XXI. 596 For staining, borax-carmine was used. 1890Billings Med. Dict., Borax carmine, an aqueous solution of borax and carmine... A pure and intense nuclear stain if bleached with an acid.
4. Cheap, inferior, or ostentatious goods, esp. furniture; inferior and tasteless design, ‘so called fr. the reputed custom of a producer of borax soap of giving cheap furniture as a coupon premium’ (Webster 1961). Also attrib. orig. U.S.
1942R. Chandler High Window (1943) xxv. 171 A standing lamp from the basement of some borax emporium. 1948Archit. Rev. CIV. 92 (title) Borax, or the chromium-plated calf. Ibid. 314/2 ‘Borax’..is generally restricted to consumer goods where obviously heavy forms and elaborate jazzy ornament are used in order to add spurious eye-appeal. The term originated in the furniture industry and by analogy is sometimes applied to kitchen appliances and more rarely to automobile design. 1963Times 11 Feb. 13/3 There..appears to be far too much unnecessary design or ‘borax’, as useless embellishment has come to be known in financial and trade circles.
▪ II. borax
var. borak. |