(urth) Fuligin?

[Jeffery Wilson clueland.com]

On 7/16/2014 10:56 AM, DAVID STOCKHOFF wrote:
> Perhaps, but you certainly wouldn't expect him to call it "mercury." Way
> too many conflicting associations there.

Whatever word the Commonwealth's tongue had for it, if that was used and 
it was apparent from context that it was something we know today, 
mercury, G.W. would've writ the word we use, "mercury", like he does 
with all the other words where that is the case.


 > And I doubt there would be a
> common term for it anyway---who would have it sitting around the house?

People whose homes contain Emerald Tablets and homunculi, and other 20th 
century electrical conveniences like electric eyes and metal detectors, 
or whose homes are rocketships crammed full of eternally repaired 
ancient gear that might include mercury switches, mercury balances, 
mercury bearings, et cetera.  Autarch Severian is both, and then some.


-- 
Jeff Wilson - < jwilson at clueland.com >
A&M Texarkana Computational Intelligence Lab
< http://www.tamut.edu/cil >