white lead ore
- noun
- Specialized
:
mineral de plomo blanco
- Early painters valued white lead ore because it could be processed into pigments for white paint.
Examples
-
The miners extracted white lead ore from the hillside for use in various industries.
-
Many industries rely on white lead ore for lead production.
-
Many deposits of white lead ore were discovered throughout the 18th century.
-
The geologist discovered a new deposit of white lead ore.
-
Early painters valued white lead ore because it could be processed into pigments for white paint.
-
Many deposits of white lead ore were discovered throughout the 18th century.
-
The miners extracted white lead ore from the hillside for use in various industries.
Synonyms
A mineral that people mine to get lead
A rock that contains a heavy grey metal people take out to use
A white poisonous powder that contains lead and was used to make paint
Surface Forms
Morphology
The phrase is fully compositional: 'lead' + 'ore' indicates rock from which lead is extracted and 'white' simply describes the color or type of that ore. A B1 learner who knows the constituent words can therefore infer it denotes a white-colored lead ore (e.g., cerussite), so the meaning is immediately derivable from its parts.
Etymology
White lead ore names the mineral rock that gave the old white pigment called 'white lead'. People mined the ore and treated its lead to make a white powder for paint, so the phrase means the rock that was the source of that white paint.
