caput mortuumとは 意味・読み方・使い方

発音

• IPA: /ˈkæpət ˈmɔː(ɹ)tjʊəm/

名詞

caput mortuum (uncountable)

1. (alchemy) Worthless residue of sublimation or distillation.
2. Cardinal purple, a variety of haematite iron oxide pigment.
   • 2018, Kate Atkinson, Transcription, page 227:

     Were they working their way through the colours and now had reached the more abstruse layers of the spectrum? What would be next — caput mortuum, heliotrope? The colours of the day.

参考

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語源

Literally, “dead head”. Figurative use from alchemical literature.

名詞

caput mortuum n (genitive capitis mortuum); third declension

1. a dead man's head, a skull
2. worthless residue, useless substance
   • 1591 "Caput mortuum, ut est apud Paracelsum, sign. materias, quae sunt in fundo vasis chimici" (Antonio Ricciardo, Commentaria symbolica, p. 138)
3. Cardinal purple, a variety of haematite iron oxide pigment

語形変化

Third-declension noun (neuter, imparisyllabic non-i-stem) with an indeclinable portion.