Definition of "calx"

calx

/kælks/

noun
plural calces or calxes
1. (now chiefly historical) The substance which remains after a metal or mineral has been thoroughly burnt, once seen as being the essential substance left after the expulsion of phlogiston, but now recognised as being the metallic oxide (or, in some cases, the metal in a state of sublimation).
  Quotations
  [S]ome ladies apply to what are termed coſmetics under various names, which crowd the newspapers. Of theſe the white has deſtroyed the health of thouſands; a calx, or magiſtery, of biſmuth is ſuppoſed to be ſold in the ſhops for this purpoſe; but it is either, I am informed, in part or entirely white lead or ceruffa. […] The real calx of biſmuth would probably have the ſame ill effect.
  1796, Erasmus Darwin, “[Class III. Diseases of Volition.] Ordo I. Increased Volition. Genus II. With Increased Actions of the Organs of Sense.”, in Zoonomia; or, The Laws of Organic Life, volume II, London: […] J[oseph] Johnson, […], paragraph 12, page 375
  The regeneration of mercury from its calx, without addition of any other substance, had been a chief example for anti-phlogiston, but that could, as Kirwan showed, be explained in a way consistent with phlogiston theory.
  2004, Robert E Schofield, The Enlightened Joseph Priestley, Pennsylvania State University, page 179
2. In the Eton College wall game, an area at the end of the field where a shy can be scored by lifting the ball against the wall with one's foot.