Vitriols

Part of speech: noun

Definitions

1. A caustic substance or chemical that can dissolve metals and other materials, often associated with a strong corrosive nature
2. A term used to describe malicious and harsh criticism, reflecting an intense and bitter attitude
3. Historically, a group of sulfate minerals, particularly those containing sulfur and a metal cation, used in various industrial processes

Etymology: "Vitriols" is the plural of "vitriol," and the singular has an odd history: it started as the name of a substance rather than an insult. Its ancestor, Medieval Latin "vitriolum," meant "sulfuric acid," and the word was built from "vitrum," the Latin for "glass." The link is that many of the early vitriols were sulfate salts with a glassy, crystalline look, and the acids made from them were corrosive enough to eat into skin and metal. Over time the word passed through Middle English and Old French, keeping its sense of a caustic, damaging substance. That harshness is what carried it into figurative use, where a "vitriol" came to mean a bitter, cutting tone that burns its target much as the chemical would. The plural "vitriols" is the form used for several such attacks, or for the bitter attitude behind them.