fool's gold

English

Etymology

From the idea that the mineral fools people (especially those who are fools) into mistakenly thinking that they have found gold. Regarding minerals that were named for deceptive appearance that prompts confusion with others, compare also apatite.

Noun

fool's gold (uncountable)

1. A mineral or other substance often mistaken for gold; mainly iron pyrite.
2. (figurative) Something worthless that deceptively seems valuable.
   • 2011, Ellen A. Ensher, Susan E. Murphy, Power Mentoring, page 50:

     Although many dot-com dreams turned to fool's gold in a short time, in reality, there are a number of entrepreneurial ventures that not only survived but thrived during and after the dot-com crash.

Translations

mineral or other substance often mistaken for gold

• Albanian: please add this translation if you can
• Arabic: please add this translation if you can
• Armenian: please add this translation if you can
• Basque: please add this translation if you can
• Catalan: or dels ximples m
• Chinese:

  Mandarin: 愚人金 (yúrén jīn), 假黃金／假黄金 (jiǎ huángjīn)

• Czech: kočičí zlato n
• Danish: narreguld n
• Dutch: gekkengoud
• Esperanto: please add this translation if you can
• Finnish: kissankulta (fi), katinkulta (fi)
• French: or des fous (fr) m
• Georgian: please add this translation if you can
• German: Katzengold (de) n, Narrengold n
• Greek: σιδηροπυρίτης (el) m (sidiropyrítis), χαλκοπυρίτης m (chalkopyrítis)
• Hebrew: please add this translation if you can
• Hungarian: bolondok aranya
• Icelandic: glópagull n
• Italian: oro di Bologna m, similoro m, oro degli stolti m
• Japanese: 愚か者の金 (orokamono no kin), 黄鉄鉱 (ja) (おうてっこう, outekkou)
• Khmer: please add this translation if you can
• Korean: 바보의 금 (baboui geum)
• Mongolian: please add this translation if you can
• Portuguese: ouro dos tolos m
• Spanish: oro de los tontos m, oro de los pobres m
• Swedish: kattguld n, svavelkis c, pyrit c
• Thai: ทองคนโง่ (tɔɔng-kon-ngôo)
• Turkish: please add this translation if you can
• Vietnamese: please add this translation if you can