31 May 2019
ormolu
[awr-muh-loo]
noun
1. Also called mosaic gold. an alloy of copper and zinc used to imitate gold.
2. Also called bronze doré, gilt bronze. gilded metal, especially cast brass or bronze gilded over fire with an amalgam of gold and mercury, used for furniture mounts and ornamental objects.
3. gold or gold powder prepared for use in gilding.
Origin of ormolu
French
1755-1765; French or moulu ground gold, equivalent to or (Latin aurum) + moulu, past participle of moudre to grind < Latin molere
Dictionary.com Unabridged
Based on the Random House Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2018.
Cite This Source
Examples from the Web for ormolu
Historical Examples
The wood-work is painted white, and enriched with wreaths of leaves in ormolu.
The Care of Books
John Willis Clark
Coal-scuttles, like andirons, should be made of bronze, ormolu or iron.
The Decoration of Houses
Edith Wharton
I shall merely present them with an ormolu timepiece—whatever that may be.
Pincher Martin, O.D.
H. Taprell Dorling
Today’s quote
My fate cannot be mastered; it can only be collaborated with and thereby, to some extent, directed. Nor am I the captain of my soul; I am only its noisiest passenger.
– Aldous Huxley
On this day
31 May 1921 – 1 June 1921 – The Tulsa Race Riots in which a large group of white people attacked the black community in Tulsa, Oklahoma, including aerial attacks that dropped bombs and fired on the community. It resulted in the Greenwood District, also known as the ‘Black Wall Street’ being burned to the ground. The Greenwood District was the wealthiest black community in the USA at the time.More than 800 people were admitted to white hospitals after two hospitals in the black community were burned down. Police arrested or detained more than 6,000 black residents. More than 10,000 were left homeless and 35 city blocks comprising of 1,256 destroyed. Official figures state that 39 people were killed, however, other sources estimate that between 55 and 300 black residents were killed with 9 white people killed. The riots were precipitated when a black man was suspected of raping a white girl in an elevator. White residents gathered with rumours of a lynching to happen. As the whites descended on Greenwood, a group of black men assembled to confront them. During this, some of the whites began torching buildings
31 May 1930 – birth of Clint Eastwood, American actor, director, producer and politician.
31 May 1948 – birth of John Bonham, Led Zeppelin drummer. Died 25 September 1980.
31 May 1965 – birth of Brooke Shields, American actor, model and producer.
31 May 1996 – death of Timothy Leary, American psychologist and author. Leary was a major proponent of the use of psychedelic drugs, particularly LSD and psilocybin (mushrooms). He conducted numerous psychiatric experiments using psychedelics, particularly during the 1950s and and 1960s, when the drugs were legal. LSD was banned by the USA in 1966. Leary popularised 1960’s catch-phrases such as ‘turn on, tune in and drop out’, ‘set and setting’, and ‘think for yourself and question authority’. He was friends with beat generation poets, such as Allen Ginsberg, William S. Burroughs and Jack Kerouac. Leary was arrested numerous times over his possession and use of drugs. He wrote a number of books on the benefits of psychedelic drugs. Leary became fascinated with computers, declaring that ‘the PC is the LSD of the 1990s’. He encouraged bohemians to ‘turn on, boot up, jack in’. Leary was diagnosed with prostate cancer in 1995. He chose to stream his dying moments over the internet. Seven grams of Leary’s ashes were placed aboard a Pegasus rocket, launched on 21 April 1997. It remained in orbit around the Earth for six years until it burned up in atmosphere. Born 22 October 1920.