The Collaborative International Dictionary
Ethiops \E"thi*ops\n. [NL. See Ethiop.] (Old Chem.) A black substance; -- formerly applied to various preparations of a black or very dark color. [Written also [AE]thiops.] [Obs.]
Ethiops martial (Old Chem.), black oxide of iron.
Ethiops mineral (Old Chem.), black sulphide of mercury, obtained by triturating mercury with sulphur.
Ethiops per se (Old Chem.), mercury in finely divided state, having the appearance of a dark powder, obtained by shaking it up or by exposure to the air.
Wiktionary
n. (context obsolete mineral English) Any of various dark oxides or sulfides of metals
Wikipedia
The term aethiops can refer to a number of different things:
- Aethiops, a son of the Greek god Hephaestus from whom, according to Pliny the Elder (Nat Hist. 6.184-187), Aethiopia derived its name.
- Zeus Aethiops an epithet of the Greek god Zeus.
- The Aethiop is an Aesop's fable, numbered 393 in the Perry Index.
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Aethiops, or æthiops or ethiops, refers to certain dark-colored minerals:
- Ethiops martial is wüstite.
- Aethiops mineral is a form of cinnabar, also known as metacinnabarite. Historically, it was prescribed for parasitic worms and all crudities and acrimony of the humours. It was reputedly infallible against the itch and other cutaneous diseases.
Usage examples of "aethiops".
I cannot imagine Sultan Mehemet getting any of his fleet involved in a clearly Roman dispute, not with the bulk of his army away down south fighting the Aethiops and their allies.
I prayed heartily to the one true God that these heathen Aethiops of strangely advanced science will continue to treat our people as well as they did on our first day of contact.
The military threat of these Aethiops is naught but a sham and a bluff.
It was then easy work defeating the remainder of the Aethiops who showed no more stomach for a fight than a Royalist without his horse.