COPPERAS, noun Sulphate of iron, or green vitriol; a salt of a peculiar astringent taste, and of various colors, green, gray, yellowish, or whitish, but more usually green. It is much used in dyeing black and in making ink, and in medicine, as a tonic. The copperas of commerce is usually made by the decomposition of iron pyrites. The term copperas was formerly synonymous with vitriol, and included the green, blue and white vitriols, or the sulphates of iron, copper and zink.
Content
Rights and sources
Review source, license and attribution information for this content.
Content
Webster's Dictionary 1828
American Dictionary of the English Language, Noah Webster, 1828.