copper
Jump to navigation
Jump to search
See also: Copper
English[edit]
Chemical element | |
---|---|
Cu | |
Previous: nickel (Ni) | |
Next: zinc (Zn) |
Pronunciation[edit]
- (General Australian) enPR: kŏp'ə, IPA(key): /ˈkɔp.ə/
- (UK) enPR: kŏp'ə, IPA(key): /ˈkɒp.ə/
- (US) enPR: kä'pər, IPA(key): /ˈkɑ.pɚ/
Audio (US) (file) Audio (AU) (file) - Rhymes: -ɒpə(ɹ)
Etymology 1[edit]
From Middle English coper, from Old English coper, copor (“copper”), from Late Latin cuprum (“copper”), contraction of Latin aes Cyprium (literally “Cyprian brass”), from Ancient Greek Κύπρος (Kúpros, “Cyprus”). Cognate with Dutch koper (“copper”), German Kupfer (“copper”), Icelandic kopar (“copper”).
Noun[edit]
copper (countable and uncountable, plural coppers)
- (uncountable) A reddish-brown, malleable, ductile metallic element with high electrical and thermal conductivity, symbol Cu, and atomic number 29.
- The reddish-brown colour/color of copper.
- copper:
- (countable, dated) Any of various specialized items that are made of copper, where the use of copper is either traditional or vital to the function of the item.
- 1885, General Rules and Regulations Applicable to All Employes of the Chicago and Grand Trunk Railway Company:
- Coppers are generally good for a year, if the battery is carefully attended […]
- 1890, The Manufacturer and Builder, Vol. 22, p. 83:
- Some coppers come already tinned. I didn't buy mine, so they surely were not tinned.
- 1907, "Instructions for the Care of Callaud Batteries" in Journal of the Telegraph, vol. XL:
- Coppers are not consumed, and their life depends largely on the manner in which they are used.
- (countable) A copper coin, typically of a small denomination, such as a penny.
- 1799, Benjamin Franklin, John Bigelow, editor, The Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin, published 1868, page 255:
- I had in my pocket a handful of copper money, three or four silver dollars, and five pistoles in gold. As he proceeded I began to soften, and concluded to give the coppers.
- 1909, Archibald Marshall [pseudonym; Arthur Hammond Marshall], chapter II, in The Squire’s Daughter, New York, N.Y.: Dodd, Mead and Company, published 1919, OCLC 491297620:
- "I don't want to spoil any comparison you are going to make," said Jim, "but I was at Winchester and New College." ¶ "That will do," said Mackenzie. "I was dragged up at the workhouse school till I was twelve. Then I ran away and sold papers in the streets, and anything else that I could pick up a few coppers by—except steal. […]."
- (UK, Australia, dated) A large pot, often used for heating water or washing clothes over a fire. In Australasia at least, it could also be a fixed installation made of copper, with a fire underneath and its own chimney. Generally made redundant by the advent of the washing machine.
- Mum would heat the water in a copper in the kitchen and transfer it to the tin bath.
- I explain that socks can’t be boiled up in the copper with the sheets and towels or they shrink.
- 1797, Dyeing, article in Colin Macfarquhar, George Gleig (editors), Encyclopædia Britannica: or, A Dictionary of Arts, Sciences, and Miscellaneous Literature, Volume 6, Part 1 p.207:
- When the water in the copper boils, the arsenic and tartar, well pounded, is put into it, and kept boiling till the liquor is reduced to about half.
- 1886, Peter Christen Asbjørnsen, H.L. Brækstad, transl., Folk and Fairy Tales, 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.'
- 1898, H.G. Wells, The War of the Worlds, London: William Heinemann, page 230:
- He rose to his knees, for he had been sitting in the darkness near the copper.
- 1907, Barbara Baynton, Sally Krimmer; Alan Lawson, editors, Human Toll (Portable Australian Authors: Barbara Baynton), St Lucia: University of Queensland Press, published 1980, 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, The British Country House in the Eighteenth Century, p. 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.
- 1885, General Rules and Regulations Applicable to All Employes of the Chicago and Grand Trunk Railway Company:
- (entomology) Any of various lycaenid butterflies with copper-coloured upperwings, especially those of the genera Lycaena and Paralucia.
Synonyms[edit]
Derived terms[edit]
- antimonial copper
- arsenical copper
- barium copper disilicate
- barium copper oxide
- black copper
- black copper ore
- blanched copper
- blister copper, blistered copper
- blue copper
- Bungtown copper
- Chessy copper
- chromated copper arsenate
- clear one's coppers
- cool one's coppers
- copper acetate
- copper age
- copper arsenate
- copper-arsenide
- copper-arsenite
- copper-beech
- copper-bellied snake
- copper-belly
- copperbelly
- copper belt
- copperbelt
- Copperbelt
- copper-bit
- copper-blende
- copper-bloom
- copper-bottom
- copper-bottomed
- copper-bound
- copper-butterfly
- copper-cap
- copper-captain
- copper carbonate
- copper chloride
- copper-colic
- copper-cut
- copper dichloride
- coppered
- copper-emerald
- copperer
- Copper Eskimo
- copper-faced
- copper-fasten
- copper-fastened
- copper-finch
- copper-foil
- copper-glance
- copper-green
- copper-head
- copperhead
- copper-headed
- copper-hells
- copper-hops
- copper-Indian
- coppering
- copper-iron
- copperise, copperize
- copperish
- copper-knob
- copper loss
- copper-man
- copper-manganese
- copper-mica
- coppern
- copper-nickel
- copper nitrate
- coppernob
- copper-nose
- copper ore
- copper oxide
- copper phosphide
- copper-place
- copperplate
- copper-powder
- copper pyrites
- copper-rain
- copper schist
- copperskin
- copper-skinned
- copper-slate
- coppersmith
- copper-smoke
- copper-snake
- copper-spot
- copper sulfate, copper sulphate
- copper sulfide, copper sulphide
- copper-top
- copper-topped
- copper uranite
- copper-vitriol
- copperware
- copper-wing
- copper-work
- copper-works
- coppery
- disulfide of copper, disulphide of copper
- dry copper
- emerald copper
- emerald copper ore
- enamelers' copper, enamellers' copper
- gold-copper ore
- grey copper
- grey copper ore
- hot coppers
- indigo copper
- japan copper
- large copper
- manganese copper
- octahedral copper
- octahedral copper ore
- phosphor copper
- purple copper
- purple copper ore
- pyritous copper
- red copper
- scarce copper
- silver-copper nitrate
- sulfate of copper
- sulphate of copper
- tricopper
- variegated copper
- variegated copper ore
- velvet copper
- velvet copper ore
- white copper
- yellow copper
- yellow copper ore
Related terms[edit]
Translations[edit]
chemical element Cu
|
|
something made of copper
colour of copper
|
|
copper coin
large pot for hot water
butterfly
|
Adjective[edit]
copper (comparative more copper, superlative most copper)
- Made of copper.
- Having the reddish-brown colour/color of copper.
- 1798, Samuel Taylor Coleridge, The Rime of the Ancient Mariner
- All in a hot and copper sky,
The bloody Sun, at noon,
Right up above the mast did stand,
No bigger than the Moon.
- All in a hot and copper sky,
- 1999, Maria M. Gillan, Things My Mother Told Me, page 38:
- She seemed so alive, with her shining eyes and her copper hair and her jokes and funny stories, but there was always a mystery at the center of her life, the sound of wild sobbing my mother said she heard coming through the floor.
- 1798, Samuel Taylor Coleridge, The Rime of the Ancient Mariner
Synonyms[edit]
Translations[edit]
made of copper
|
|
having the colour of copper
|
Verb[edit]
copper (third-person singular simple present coppers, present participle coppering, simple past and past participle coppered)
- To sheathe or coat with copper.
Translations[edit]
to sheathe or coat in copper
|
See also[edit]
Items relating to subject of copper
Etymology 2[edit]
From cop (“to take, capture, seize”) + -er (“agent suffix”).
Noun[edit]
copper (plural coppers)
Synonyms[edit]
- (policeman): police officer, constable, cop, see also Thesaurus:police officer
Derived terms[edit]
Related terms[edit]
Translations[edit]
slang: a policeman
|
Further reading[edit]
- David Barthelmy (1997–2022), “Copper”, in Webmineral Mineralogy Database.
- "copper" in Mindat.org, Hudson Institute of Mineralogy, 2000–2021.
Middle English[edit]
Noun[edit]
copper
- Alternative form of coper
Categories:
- en:Chemical elements
- English 2-syllable words
- English terms with IPA pronunciation
- English terms with audio links
- Rhymes:English/ɒpə(ɹ)
- Rhymes:English/ɒpə(ɹ)/2 syllables
- English terms inherited from Middle English
- English terms derived from Middle English
- English terms inherited from Old English
- English terms derived from Old English
- English terms derived from Late Latin
- English terms derived from Latin
- English terms derived from Ancient Greek
- English lemmas
- English nouns
- English uncountable nouns
- English countable nouns
- English dated terms
- English terms with quotations
- British English
- Australian English
- English terms with usage examples
- en:Entomology
- English adjectives
- English verbs
- English terms derived from Proto-Indo-European
- English terms derived from the Proto-Indo-European root *keh₂p-
- English words suffixed with -er
- English slang
- en:Law enforcement
- en:Browns
- en:Coins
- en:Colors
- en:Gossamer-winged butterflies
- en:Metals
- en:People
- en:Group 11 chemical elements
- en:Period 4 chemical elements
- Middle English lemmas
- Middle English nouns