calamine
calamine Lexical Profile
calamine Game Scores & Validity
• noun
A pink, odorless powder consisting mainly of zinc oxide and a small amount of ferric oxide, dissolved in mineral oils or water to make a soothing lotion or ointment for sunburn, rashes, and insect bites.
"The school nurse dabbed cool calamine onto the child's poison ivy rash to stop the itching."
A historical mineralogical term for naturally occurring ores of zinc, specifically smithsonite (zinc carbonate) and hemimorphite (hydrated zinc silicate), before they were chemically distinguished.
"Before the nineteenth century, miners extracted calamine from limestone deposits to manufacture brass."
• Nearby Words
Word Origin & Etymology
Borrowed in the late Middle English period from Old French calamine, from Medieval Latin calamina, an alteration of Latin cadmia ('zinc ore'), which ultimately derives from Ancient Greek kadmeia, named after Cadmus, the legendary founder of Thebes, near where the mineral was mined.