weapon-salve

English

Alternative forms

• weapon salve

Pronunciation

• (UK) IPA^(key): /ˈwɛpən salv/

Noun

weapon-salve (plural weapon-salves)

1. (now historical) A type of ointment formerly applied to a weapon in order to heal a wound caused by that weapon.
   • 1936, Rollo Ahmed, The Black Art, London: Long, page 225:

     One of his great enthusiasms was for a "sympathetic" weapon salve, an idea originating in Paracelsus.

   • 1971, Keith Thomas, Religion and the Decline of Magic, Folio Society, published 2012, page 184:

     The supreme example of a magical cure justified by the Neoplatonist belief in occult influences and sympathies was the weapon-salve, around which a fierce controversy raged in the 1630s.

   • 2002, Allen G Debus, The Chemical Philosophy, page 246:

     A century earlier Paracelsus had described the weapon-salve, which was prepared from a number of ingredients including the blood of the injured person.

Translations

A type of ointment formerly applied to a weapon in order to heal a wound caused by that weapon

French: onguent armaire m

See also

• hoplochrism
• powder of sympathy