brimstone
n.n. a yellow powder that is used to make fireworks and explosives. It is also a name for sulfur, which is a chemical element.
n. a yellow crystalline solid consisting of sulfur, used historically in the production of gunpowder and fireworks. Often used as a poetic or archaic synonym for sulfur.
The old factory used brimstone to make fireworks.
In the old alchemy texts, brimstone was believed to be the key to turning lead into gold.
The air was thick with the acrid scent of brimstone, a remnant of the industrial era when the valley was home to numerous chemical plants.
From Middle English brymston, brimston, bremston, forms of brinston, brenston, bernston, from Old English brynstān (“brimstone”, literally “burn-stone”), equivalent to brian + stone, or burn + stone. Cognate with Scots brunstane (“brimstone”), Icelandic brennisteinn (“sulfur / sulphur, brimstone”), German Bernstein (“amber”). Compare also brimfire. More at burn, stone. Although once a synonym for sulfur, the word is now largely restricted to poetic and Biblical usage.