Science & TechnologyGreek → English
Metallurgy
/ˈmɛtəlɜːrdʒi/noun
The science of extracting metals from ore and shaping their properties.
The Greek roots
μέταλλον
métallon
mine, quarry
ἔργον
érgon
work
Literally: “work of the mines”
The story of the word
μέταλλον meant the mine itself long before it meant what came out of one. The silver that paid for the Athenian fleet at Salamis came from τὰ μέταλλα at Laurion, worked by thousands of slaves in tunnels barely wide enough to kneel in. English took metallurgy in the early eighteenth century when it covered assaying and smelting; the field now runs to dislocation theory and fatigue cracking, and the name still says digging.
- How it travelled
- Ancient Greek → Modern Latin → English
- First recorded
- early 18th century
Same family
metalenergysurgeryliturgy
In a sentence
The failure report came back to metallurgy: the wrong alloy in a bolt that saw more cold than anyone planned for.