The Name Antimony

Even the name antimony is shrouded in alchemical mystery and, like other such terms, is most likely a corruption of some Arabic word or phrase so as to appear Greek or Latin. The Latin stibium, formerly used for the element and still the root for the names of many of its compounds, may very well have the same (but unknown) Arabic root. Stibnite, or the stibic stone, what we know today as antimony(III) sulfide, Sb2S3, was used by the ancients as a cosmetic to darken and beautify eyebrows. Rhazes, the tenth-century Persian physician and alchemist, described metallic antimony, but it is not known when this brittle gray metal was first isolated. Early uses include the potassium antimony tartrate salt as an emetic (vomiting inducer) and the metal with lead in type metal alloys. 

---