entry
mercurial
/mərˈkjʊriəl/quick, changeable, lively, volatile
From Latin mercur (Mercury).
from Latin Mercurialis
from Latin Mercurialis
from Latin Mercurialis
Word Ancestry
from Latin Mercurialis
from Latin Mercurialis
from Latin Mercurialis
Roman Mercury had a job description that sounds like a startup founder, a customs officer, and a gossip columnist all at once: messenger, trader, guide, trickster. So when medieval and early modern writers called someone mercurial, they were invoking a god who could dart between worlds in a flash. The twist is that the word also got a little help from quicksilver, the old name for mercury, because the metal skitters around like a drop that refuses to sit still. That same family of meanings leaves trails into chemistry with mercuric and mercurous, and into the planet Mercury itself, which never lingers in the sky. Say 'mercurial' and you're basically describing a personality with the blink-and-you-miss-it energy of both a winged sandal and a bead of liquid metal.
The Story
Roman Mercury had a job description that sounds like a startup founder, a customs officer, and a gossip columnist all at once: messenger, trader, guide, trickster. So when medieval and early modern writers called someone mercurial, they were invoking a god who could dart between worlds in a flash. The twist is that the word also got a little help from quicksilver, the old name for mercury, because the metal skitters around like a drop that refuses to sit still. That same family of meanings leaves trails into chemistry with mercuric and mercurous, and into the planet Mercury itself, which never lingers in the sky. Say 'mercurial' and you're basically describing a personality with the blink-and-you-miss-it energy of both a winged sandal and a bead of liquid metal.
Kin & Kindred
From 'mercur'·Mercury; the Roman god, planet, and metal
Derived Terms
English words from this root