mercurial
A person born under the influence of the planet MercuryA person born under the influence of the planet Mercury; hence, a person having an eloquent, quickwitted, furtive, or volatile character.
Meaning
4 sensesA person born under the influence of the planet Mercury; hence, a person having an eloquent, quickwitted, furtive, or volatile character.
A chemical compound containing mercury.
(historical)A preparation of mercury, especially as a treatment for syphilis.
(obsolete)Any of the plants known as mercury, especially the annual mercury or French mercury (Mercurialis annua).
Origin
Noun sense 1 (“(obsolete) plant known as mercury”) is from Middle English mercurial (“a plNoun sense 1 (“(obsolete) plant known as mercury”) is from Middle English mercurial (“a plant, probably the goosefoot (Chenopodium); (possibly) dog’s mercury (Mercurialis perennis)”), from Anglo-Norman mercurial, Old French mercurial, or directly from their etymon Latin mercuriālis (“a plant, probably annual mercury (Mercurialis annua)”), short for herba mercuriālis (“(probably) annual mercury”, literally “herb or plant of the god Mercury”). Mercuriālis (“pertaining to the Roman god Mercury”, adjective) is derived from Mercurius (“the Roman god Mercury”) + -ālis (suffix forming adjectives of relationship from nouns).
Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0 · source
Dictionary text adapted from Wiktionary (Wiktionary contributors, CC BY-SA 4.0) and Open English WordNet / Princeton WordNet (CC BY 4.0, WordNet License); shared under CC BY-SA 4.0. Example sentences and recordings are credited where they appear.