Everyday LifeGreek → English
Copper
/ˈkɒpər/noun
A soft reddish metal, element 29, used for wire, pipe and coin.
The Greek roots
Κύπρος
Kýpros
Cyprus
Literally: “metal of Cyprus”
Follow a root:Κύπρος1 word
The story of the word
Romans called it aes Cyprium, metal from Cyprus, because the island's mines supplied the empire; the phrase shrank to cuprum, which is why the chemical symbol is Cu. Old English took it as coper. Whether the island is named for the metal or the metal for the island is genuinely unsettled, and some argue both trace back to a pre-Greek word. The police sense of copper is a separate word, from cop meaning to seize.
- How it travelled
- Ancient Greek → Latin → Old English → English
- First recorded
- Old English
Same family
cupriccuprouscupronickel
In a sentence
The roof had gone the green of old copper.