A Chymical Dictionary

Tartarum

Salts solvents and liquid preparations · A Chymical Dictionary

At a Glance

The word. A wine-vessel deposit whose name also serves for bodily stones or gravel.

In the book. The passage offers a clear example of the dictionary’s movement between natural and medical vocabularies.

A place to read. The historical definition below, 1650 dictionary, unnumbered definition page 44; facsimile PDF page 372.

Historical Definition

Tartarum is a hard, saltish deposit adhering to the sides of wine vessels; it is also often used for stones or gravel in human bodies.

Meaning

The definition begins with a material described through texture, taste, place and adherence. It is hard and saltish, and it sticks to the sides of wine vessels. The second clause then records an extended bodily use. Often is a usage marker, not a declaration that every bodily stone has exactly the same material composition as the deposit in a wine vessel.

Use in the Book

The passage offers a clear example of the dictionary’s movement between natural and medical vocabularies. The shared name helps explain the analogy, while the named sites remain different. A reader should establish whether the surrounding discussion concerns wine, a prepared material, or the human body before deciding which sense is active.

Several cross-references sharpen the distinction. Samech is simply referred to tartar, so that short synonym leaves the contextual choice open. Sal taberzet is the whitest tartar, adding a particular quality within the category. Saxifraga and Serpheta describe agents by effects attributed to them on stone or gravel; those therapeutic claims do not make their materials themselves tartar.

Realgar supplies another explicit extension between domains. There the dictionary calls the bodily application metaphorical. Here it says the name is often taken for bodily deposits. The different wording should be respected: the parallel helps explain a habit of language without proving that the compiler intended precisely the same kind of relation in both entries.

Places to Read

Realgar. A mineral term extended metaphorically to harmful bodily matter.

Sal taberzet. A tartar distinguished by its exceptional whiteness.

Samech. A historical synonym for tartar.

In This Edition

Tartar modernises the English form while the Latin headword remains findable. Hard, saltish and adhering are retained because they are the source’s identifying features. The medical use is explained as historical vocabulary, with no new diagnosis or treatment inferred from it.

Historical source: 1650 dictionary, unnumbered definition page 44; facsimile PDF page 372 — Facsimile

Sources. A Chymicall Dictionary (1650), s.v. Tartarum; 1650 facsimile PDF p. 372; compare Realgar, Sal taberzet, Samech, Saxifraga, Serpheta

See also. Realgar; Sal taberzet; Samech; Saxifraga; Serpheta