Etymology Dictionary

AMALGAM,  a compound of mercury with another metal, a mixture.  (F.,—Gk.)   [The restriction in sense to a mixture containing mercury is perhaps unoriginal; it is probable that the word properly meant 'an emollient;' that afterwards it came to mean 'a pasty mixture,' and at last 'a mixture of a metal with mercury.']   Chaucer has amalgaming, C. T. Group G, 771.—F. amalgame, which Cotgrave explains by 'a mixture, or incorporation of quicksilver with other metals.'   β. Either a corruption or an alchemist's anagram of Lat. malagma, a mollifying poultice or plaster.—Gk. μάλαγμα, an emollient; also a poultice, plaster, or any soft material.—Gk. μαλάσσειν, to soften (put for μαλακ-yειν).—Gk. μαλακός, soft; cf. Gk. ἀμαλός, tender; Curtius, i. 405.—✔MAR, to pound.   Der. amalgamate, amalgam-at-ion [†]

ADDENDA

Not (F.,—Gk.), but (F.,—L.,—Gk.).   But the derivation from μάλαγμα, given by Mahn, Littré, Scheler, and Diez, is not very satisfactory.   Devic (Supp. to Littré) traces the Low Lat. amalgama back to the 13th century, and says that it occurs in Albertus Magnus and Arnoldus de Villa Nova.   He thinks it may be Arabic, but fails to prove it so.