Prussia

Prussia (pronounced pruhsh-uh)

(1) A geographical area on the Baltic coast of northeastern Europe (historic references only).

(2) A Baltic country located in this area, conquered by the Teutonic Order and later part of the Holy Roman Empire (retrospectively labeled the First Reich) and subsequently the former German state.

(3) A former German state (Preussen in German) in north and central Germany, extending from the borders of France and the Low Countries to those of Lithuania and Poland.  It developed into the most powerful military power on the Continent (said at the time to be “an army with a country” rather than “a country with an army”), leading the North German Confederation between 1867–1871 when a German Empire (retrospectively labeled the Second Reich) was created by Otto von Bismarck (1815–1898; Chancellor of the German Empire 1871-1890).  Associated with the militarism which led to the First World War and tainted by association with the Nazis (the Third Reich), pursuant to discussions at the Tehran, Yalta and Potsdam conferences  of World War II, the Western allies sought the abolition of Prussia.  Comrade Stalin, influenced by Imperial Russia’s historic relationship with Prussia, was initially sanguine about the name remaining but later agreed to its dissolution and the Allied Control Council issued a law on 25 February 1947.  On that day, Prussia was officially proclaimed dissolved

Pre 1100: From the Medieval Latin Borussi & Prusi (Prūssia in the New Latin), Latinized forms of the native name of the Lithuanian people who lived in the bend of the Baltic before being conquered in the twelfth century and exterminated by the (mostly) German crusaders who replaced them as the inhabitants.  It’s perhaps from the Slavic Po-Rus ((the land) near the Rusi (Russians)) but the New Latin Prūssia was a Latinization used by Peter of Dusburg of a Baltic (Old Prussian, or perhaps Lithuanian or Latvian) autonym. The primitive Indo-European source of the name is unclear but the root may be the one used in the very name of Prusa (Prussia), for which an earlier Brus existed on an early Bavarian map.  In Tacitus' Germania, the Lugii Buri were said to dwell within the eastern range of the Germans and, while speculative, Lugi may descend from Pokorny's leug (black, swamp), while Buri is perhaps the root of “Prussia”.

Although the documentary evidence is sparse, etymologists note the Proto-Balto-Slavic prus-sk which was cognate with the Sanskrit प्रुष्णोति (pruṣṇóti) (sprinkle), the Czech prskat (splutter, sizzle) and the Serbo-Croatian prskati (splash), thus signifying "watery land", interesting because the tribes of the Baltic Prussian region all adopted names reflecting the natural environment, many alluding to water, something not unexpected in lands with thousands of lakes, streams, and swamps.  The first pre-Baltic settlers tended to name their villages after the streams, lakes, seas, or forests by which they settled and the tribes or clans into which they coalesced then took these names.  The Middle English designation for the region, Pruce, derives from the same Latinization and is the source of the terms pruce and spruce.

Prussian Blue

Famous for being among the first modern synthetic pigments created, Prussian blue was a serendipitous discovery in 1704 by Berlin-based color-maker Johann Jacob Diesbach (circa 1970-1748).  He was mixing a red lake pigment to use as a dye, made with iron sulfate and potash but unknown to him, the potash was contaminated with impurities (animal oil) so instead of a vivid red, a purple emerged, which when concentrated, transformed to a deep blue.  This accidental discovery provided an inexpensive alternative to the only permanent blue pigment then available, ultramarine (lapiz lazuli) which, being mined only in tiny quantities in Afghanistan, was ruinously expensive.  Prussian blue revolutionized both art and industrial production because, except for the rare aquamarine, blue dyes obtained from rocks and plants were unstable and unreliably color-fast.

Lindsay Lohan in Prussian blue bikini with high-waist brief and halter-style top.

Its manufacture escaped regulation by painters’ guilds since it was considered a chemical and not paint so use quickly spread. Cezanne’s mustache was stained with it, Ruskin hoarded it, it was Wordsworth’s favorite color and both EE Cummings & Baudelaire wrote of it.  Van Gogh told other artists his Starry Night (1889) wouldn't have been possible without Prussian blue and it's the most remembered shade from Picasso's blue period.

On the Street to Prussian Blue, Oil on Canvas by Victoria Kloch, 2017.

It’s also one of the creations of inorganic chemistry on the World Health Organization's (WHO) List of Essential Medicines because it can be useful as a sequestering agent and therefore an antidote for certain kinds of heavy metal poisoning such as those caused by thallium and radioactive isotopes of caesium.