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copper

From Wiktionary, the free dictionary
See also: Copper

English

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WOTD – 9 February 2026
Chemical element
Cu
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Next: zinc (Zn)
Wikidata has a Lexeme related to:
Copper (etymology 1, noun sense 1) in its natural state.

Pronunciation

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Etymology 1

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The noun is inherited from Middle English coper, copper (“copper ore; copper metal; bronze”),[1] from Old English coper, copor (“copper”),[2] from Late Latin cuprum (“copper”), a contraction of Latin aes Cyprium (literally “Cyprian brass or copper”), ultimately from Ancient Greek Κῠ́προς (Kŭ́pros, “Cyprus”) (a major source of copper during the Near East’s Bronze Age),[3] from the name of a Northwest Semitic goddess from the root כ־ב־ר/ك ب ر (k b r) (“related to being big, large; great; or old”). Doublet of kobo.

The adjective is from an attributive use of the noun. The verb is also derived from the noun.[4]

cognates

Noun

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copper (countable and uncountable, plural coppers)

  2. (uncountable, chemistry) A reddish-brown metallic chemical element (symbol Cu) with the atomic number 29; also, the metal made up of this element.
    Alternative form: Cu (symbol)
  3. (by extension)
    2. (uncountable) The reddish-brown colour of copper (etymology 1, noun sense 1).
      copper:  
      Coordinate terms: bronze, brass
      Near-synonyms: chestnut, russet
      2. (countable, entomology) In full copper butterfly: any of various lycaenid butterflies with copper-coloured upperwings, especially those of the genera Lycaena and Paralucia.
    3. (countable, dated) Any of various specialized items made of copper (etymology 1, noun sense 1), where the use of the metal is either necessary or traditional to the function of the item.
      • 1885 December, “Main Batteries”, in General Rules and Regulations Applicable to All Employes of the Chicago and Grand Trunk R[ailwa]y Company, Detroit, Grand Haven & Milwaukee R’y, and Railways Operated by Them, Detroit, Mich.: General Offices [of the Chicago and Grand Trunk Railway Company, and Detroit, Grand Haven and Milwaukee Railway Company], →OCLC, page 33:
        Coppers are generally good for a year, if the battery is carefully attended; they should, however, be removed before they have increased to such a size that their removal might cause the destruction of the glass jars.
        Referring to the copper cathodes of batteries.
      • 1890 August, “Some Soldering Kinks”, in William H. Wahl, editor, The Manufacturer and Builder: A Practical Journal of Industrial Progress, volume XXII, number 8, New York, N.Y.: Henri Gerard, →OCLC, page 183, column 1:
        Every millwright should have some soldering tools, and he ought to know how to use them. […] Coppers weighing one pound each are the smallest ever needed in a paper mill, and one 2-pound copper should be bought also. […] Having made the solder and bought "coppers," the first job is to tin them. Some coppers come already tinned. I didn't buy mine, so they surely were not tinned.
      • 1907 April 20, J. C. Barclay, “Instructions for the Care of Callaud Batteries”, in Journal of the Telegraph, volume XL, number 646, New York, N.Y.: [Western Union Telegraph Company], →ISSN, →OCLC, page 37, columns 1–2:
        When new battery coppers are received, they should be placed where they will not be exposed to extreme heat, or to the sun, whether they are in a box or not. […] Coppers are not consumed, and their life depends largely on the manner in which they are used.
        Referring to the copper cathodes of batteries.
      1. (countable) A copper mug used for drinking alcoholic beverages.
        • 1812, [Maria] Edgeworth, “The Absentee. Chapter XIII.”, in Tales of Fashionable Life (2nd series), volume VI, London: […] [Heney] for J[oseph] Johnson and Co., […], →OCLC, page 238:
          [H]e slid down from his seat, and darted into the public house, reappearing in a few moments with a copper of ale and a horn in his hand: he and another man held open the horses' mouths, and poured the ale through the horn down their throats.
      2. (countable) A copper sheet on which an image or writing is engraved.
      3. (numismatics, countable) A coin, typically of a small denomination, originally made of copper and now chiefly of other metals such as bronze; specifically, an English or British penny or halfpenny; also, a United States cent; (uncountable) coins made of copper collectively.
        1. (countable, US, card games) In the game of faro: originally a copper coin, now usually a small disc or token, placed on a playing card to indicate that a player bets against that card.
      5. (Australia, UK, countable, dated) A large pot, originally made of copper but later often of iron, filled with water and heated over a fire for cooking, washing clothes, etc.
        Coordinate terms: kettle, pot, cookpot, cooking pot, cauldron, spider, tub
        Mum would heat the water in a copper in the kitchen and transfer it to the tin bath.
        Socks can’t be boiled up in the copper with the sheets and towels or they shrink.
        • 1697, William Dampier, chapter VII, in A New Voyage Round the World. […], London: […] James Knapton, […], →OCLC, pages 199–200:
          But the chiefeſt of their buſineſs vvas to get Coppers; for each Ship having novv ſo many Men, our Pots vvould not boil Victuals faſt enough, though vve kept them boiling all the day. About 2 or 3 days after they return aboard vvith 3 Coppers.
        • 1789, Le Pileur d’Apligny, “[Of the Dying of Cotton Thread.] Of Red.”, in [Jean] Hellot, [Pierre-Joseph] Macquer, Le Pileur d’Apligny, translated by [anonymous], The Art of Dying Wool, Silk, and Cotton. […], London: […] R. Baldwin, […], →OCLC, part III (The Art of Dying Cotton and Linen Thread together with the Method of Stamping Silks, Cottons, &c.), page 497:
          When the water in the copper boils, the arſenic and tartar, vvell pounded, is put into it, and kept boiling till the liquor is reduced to about half.
        • 1833, [Frederick Marryat], chapter XIV, in Peter Simple. […], volume I, London: Saunders and Otley, […], published 1834, →OCLC, page 224:
          [W]hat can you expect from officers who boil their 'tators in a cabbage-net hanging in the ship's coppers, when they know that there is one-third of a stove allowed them to cook their victuals on?
        • 1881, P. Chr. Asbjörnsen [i.e., Peter Christen Asbjørnsen], translated by H. L. Brækstad, Round the Yule Log. Norwegian Folk and Fairy Tales, London: Sampson Low, Marston, Searle, & Rivington, →OCLC, page 6:
          You had better mind you don't get up too early, and you mustn't put any fire under the copper before two o'clock.
        • 1895–1897, H[erbert] G[eorge] Wells, “The Death of the Curate”, in The War of the Worlds, London: William Heinemann, published 1898, →OCLC, book II (The Earth under the Martians), page 230:
          He rose to his knees, for he had been sitting in the darkness near the copper.
        • 1907, Barbara Baynton, “Human Toll. Chapter 13.”, in Sally Krimmer, Alan Lawson, editors, Barbara Baynton: Bush Studies, Other Stories, Human Toll, Verse Essays and Letters (Portable Australian Authors), St. Lucia, Qld.: University of Queensland Press, published 1980, →ISBN, page 254:
          'Vot game now she play?' he asked himself, as he distinguished his wife near one of the pig-scalding coppers.
        • 2000, Christopher Christie, “Furnishing the Country House”, in The British Country House in the Eighteenth Century, Manchester; New York, N.Y.: Manchester University Press, →ISBN, page 266:
          The wet laundry's stove had a long vent in the ceiling which helped to release the steam from the coppers in which the clothes and bed linen were boiled.
Derived terms
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Descendants
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  • Sranan Tongo: kapa
Translations
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See also
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Adjective

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copper (comparative more copper, superlative most copper)

  1. Made of copper (etymology 1, noun sense 1).
    Synonym: (archaic or poetic) coppern
    • 1895–1897, H[erbert] G[eorge] Wells, “Under Foot”, in The War of the Worlds, London: William Heinemann, published 1898, →OCLC, book II (The Earth under the Martians), page 198:
      Contrasting vividly with this ruin was the neat dresser, stained in the fashion, pale green, and with a number of copper and tin vessels below it, the wall-paper imitating blue and white tiles, and a couple of coolured supplements fluttering from the walls above the kitchen range.
  2. Having the reddish-brown colour of copper.
    Synonyms: coppery, copperish
Translations
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Verb

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copper (third-person singular simple present coppers, present participle coppering, simple past and past participle coppered) (transitive)

  1. To coat or sheathe (something) with copper (etymology 1, noun sense 1).
  2. To give (something) a colour by applying a copper salt.
  3. (dated) To give copper coins to (someone); to pay.
  4. (US, card games) In the game of faro: to place a copper coin, or now usually a small disc or token, on (a playing card) to indicate that a player bets against that card.
    1. (figurative) To bet against (something).
      • 1883, Mark Twain [pseudonym; Samuel Langhorne Clemens], “Uncle Mumford Unloads”, in Life on the Mississippi, Boston, Mass.: James R[ipley] Osgood and Company, →OCLC, page 304:
        [T]hey are going to take this whole Mississippi, and twist it around and make it run several miles up stream. […] [Y]ou have n't got to believe they can do such miracles, have you? And yet you ain't absolutely obliged to believe they can't. I reckon the safe way, where a man can afford it, is to copper the operation, and at the same time buy enough property in Vicksburg to square you up in case they win.
      • 1929 February 1, Dashiell Hammett, “A Black Knife”, in Red Harvest, New York, N.Y.: Grosset & Dunlap, published March 1931, →OCLC, page 95:
        The dive is off. Better copper your bets while there's time.
Translations
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Etymology 2

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The noun is probably derived from cop (“(informal, dated) to arrest or capture (someone)”) +‎ -er (suffix forming agent nouns), although cop is attested slightly later.[5]

The verb is derived from the noun.[6]

Noun

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copper (plural coppers) (slang)

  1. (law enforcement)
    1. (chiefly Australia, UK) A police officer, especially one in uniform.
      Synonyms: constable, cop; see also Thesaurus:police officer
      • 1923, Edgar Wallace, chapter XIV, in The Missing Million, London: John Long, […], published 1927, →OCLC, pages 115–116:
        If you're caught by a copper, it's his job to pinch you, isn't it? You can hold him up with a gun, but he's got to come on, even if he gets killed. […] It's not fair on the coppers either; they've got their duty to do, and it's dirty to kill a man for doing his job.
      • 1929 February 1, Dashiell Hammett, “A New Deal”, in Red Harvest, New York, N.Y.: Grosset & Dunlap, published March 1931, →OCLC, page 124:
        A uniformed copper came in. The chief jerked a thumb at MacSwain and said: "Take this baby down cellar and let the wrecking crew work on him before you lock him up."
      • 1985 August 5, Shane MacGowan, “The Old Main Drag”, in Rum Sodomy & the Lash, performed by The Pogues, London; Universal City, Calif.: Stiff Records, →OCLC:
        One evening as I was lying down in Leicester Square / I was picked up by the coppers and kicked in the balls
    2. (US, dated or historical) Chiefly preceded by a descriptive word: a private detective or a security guard.
  2. (chiefly Australia, UK) An informer.
    1. A person working as an informer for the police; a nark
    2. A prisoner who informs on fellow prisoners.
Derived terms
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  • cop (“police officer”)
Translations
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Verb

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copper (third-person singular simple present coppers, present participle coppering, simple past and past participle coppered) (law enforcement, slang)

  1. (transitive)
    1. (chiefly UK) To inform on (someone) to the police; to nark.
    2. (chiefly US, archaic) To arrest (someone).
  2. (intransitive, chiefly UK) To inform on someone to the police.
    • 1923, Edgar Wallace, chapter XXXVII, in The Missing Million, London: John Long, […], published 1927, →OCLC, page 211:
      "It's no use your staying here, because I'm not going to copper anybody," said the woman truculently. "My lodgers are respectable people; they keep themselves to themselves, and I keep myself to myself. […]"
Translations
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Etymology 3

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From cop (“ball of thread wound on to a spindle in a spinning machine”) +‎ -er (suffix denoting things relating to the words to which the suffix is attached to).[7]

Noun

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copper (plural coppers)

  1. (spinning) A component of the cop (“conical ball of thread wound on to the spindle”) in a spinning machine.
Translations
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References

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  1. ^ “cō̆per, n.”, in MED Online, Ann Arbor, Mich.: University of Michigan, 2007.
  2. ^ Joseph Bosworth (1882), “copor, n.”, in T[homas] Northcote Toller, editor, An Anglo-Saxon Dictionary […], Oxford, Oxfordshire: Clarendon Press, →OCLC, page 166, column 1.
  3. ^ Compare “copper, n.1”, in OED Online Paid subscription required⁠, Oxford: Oxford University Press, December 2025; “copper1, n.”, in Lexico, Dictionary.com; Oxford University Press, 2019–2022.
  4. ^ “copper, v1”, in OED Online Paid subscription required⁠, Oxford: Oxford University Press, December 2025; “copper1, v.”, in Lexico, Dictionary.com; Oxford University Press, 2019–2022.
  5. ^ “copper, n.4”, in OED Online Paid subscription required⁠, Oxford: Oxford University Press, September 2025; “copper2, n.”, in Lexico, Dictionary.com; Oxford University Press, 2019–2022.
  6. ^ “copper, v.2”, in OED Online Paid subscription required⁠, Oxford: Oxford University Press, September 2024.
  7. ^ “copper, n.3”, in OED Online Paid subscription required⁠, Oxford: Oxford University Press, July 2023.

Further reading

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Middle English

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Noun

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copper

  1. alternative form of coper
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