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Main definitions of regulus in English

: regulus¹ Regulus²

regulus¹

nounplural noun reguluses, plural noun reguli/-ˌlī/ /-lē/

1Chemistry
archaic A metallic form of a substance, obtained by smelting or reduction.
‘He also bought the nearby smelting works at Scotts Creek to refine copper regulus produced at the Bremer mine.’
- ‘When it demolished the furnace in 1882 it recovered also some copper from stockpiled regulus.’
- ‘This was smelted, which reduced the bulky and heavy copper ore to a much smaller and more valuable regulus, before transporting it to the English and Australian Copper Smelting Company at Port Adelaide or to England.’
2A petty king or ruler.
- ‘The king left him as sub regulus whenever he was out of the country.’

Pronunciation

regulus

/ˈreɡyələs/ /ˈrɛɡjələs/

Origin

Late 16th century from Latin, diminutive of rex, reg- ‘king’; originally in the phrase regulus of antimony (denoting metallic antimony), apparently so named because of its readiness to combine with gold.