mercurymercury

The story

The suffix -urius is also thought to be from Etruscan. Noun sense 1 (‘metallic chemical element’) is from the association in medieval alchemy of the seven known metals—gold, silver, quicksilver, copper, iron, tin, and lead—with the Sun, the Moon, and the planets Mercury, Venus, Mars, Jupiter, and Saturn. An analogy was probably also drawn between the element being liquid at room temperature, and the Roman god Mercury’s attribute of swiftness. Noun sense 2 (‘senses relating to plants’) is derived from mercurial (“(obsolete) any of the plants now known as mercury”, noun), from Middle English mercurial (“a plant, probably goosefoot (genus Chenopodium); (possibly) dog’s mercury (Mercurialis perennis)”, noun) 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”).