Palladium
/pəˈleɪdiəm/noun
A rare silvery-white metal of the platinum group, used in catalytic converters and electronics; also, anything regarded as a community's safeguard.
The Greek roots
Literally: “the thing of Pallas”
The story of the word
The original palladium was a wooden statue of Pallas Athena that fell from the sky, and Troy was said to be safe as long as it stood inside the walls, so Odysseus and Diomedes stole it. From that story English got the sense of a protective talisman, used for centuries of institutions people wished to call indispensable. William Hyde Wollaston then attached the name to a new metal in 1803, honouring the asteroid Pallas found the year before, which is how a Trojan idol ended up in your car's exhaust.
- How it travelled
- Ancient Greek → Latin → English
Same family
In a sentence
Trial by jury was described in the pamphlet as the palladium of English liberty.
Palladium prices spiked when emissions rules tightened.