galena

See also: Galena, galèna, galenă, and galeną

English

Galena

Etymology

Learned borrowing from Latin galēna (“dross from smelting lead”).

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ɡəˈliː.nə/

• Audio (US):

  (file)

• Rhymes: -iːnə

Noun

galena (usually uncountable, plural galenas or galenae)

1. (mineralogy) A mineral, lead sulphide (PbS), mined as an ore for lead. [From circa 1600.]
   • 1939 November, Raymond B. Wailes, “Chemical Engineering for Home Experimenters”, in Popular Science, page 207:

     You can easily extract lead from galena, a natural mineral which has been used in crystal radio receivers.

   • 1942, G. F. Loughlin, A. H. Koschmann, Geology and Ore Deposits of the Magdalena Mining District, New Mexico, Geological Survey Professional Paper, Issue 200, page 98,

     The galena of the ore contains microscopic inclusions of various forms that become visible upon polished surfaces etched with hydrochloric or nitric acid.

   • 1953, “Report of the Committee on the Measurement of Geologic Time”, in U.S, National Research Council, page 132:

     These samples had higher Pb²⁰⁶ and Pb²⁰⁸ abundances than any other galenas yet examined.

   • 2008, Sanghamitra Ghosh, Heavy Stable Isotope Investigations in Environmental Science and Archaeology, page 77:

     Very little galena has been reported (recovered mostly from burial mounds) in the Great Lakes region indicating that the mineral was not a major interregional exchange commodity during this period. However, numerous galenas have been recovered from the lower Mississippi Valley region and Florida indicating that galena was part of an important north-south exchange system (Walthall 1981).

2. (medicine, obsolete) A remedy or antidote for poison; theriac

Synonyms

• galenite
• lead glance

Derived terms

• false galena
• galenic
• galenical
• galeniferous
• galenoid
• pseudogalena

Translations

mineral

• Arabic: غالينا
• Bashkir: галенит (galenit)
• Bulgarian: галенит m (galenit)
• Catalan: galena f
• Chinese:

  Mandarin: 方鉛礦 / 方铅矿 (zh) (fāngqiānkuàng)

• Danish: blyglans c
• Esperanto: galeno (eo)
• Estonian: galeniit
• Faroese: blýglansur m
• Finnish: lyijyhohde
• French: galène (fr) f
• German: Galenit m
• Greek: γαληνίτης (el) (galinítis)
• Greenlandic: aqerluusaq
• Icelandic: blýglans m
• Japanese: 方鉛鉱 (ほうえんこう, hōenkō)
• Kazakh: галенит (galenit)
• Korean: 방연광 (bang'yeon'gwang)
• Kyrgyz: галенит (galenit)
• Polish: galena (pl) f, galenit (pl) m
• Portuguese: galena f
• Romanian: galenă (ro) f
• Sardinian: galansa
• Serbo-Croatian: galenit (sh)
• Spanish: galena f
• Swedish: blyglans c
• Tagalog: galena

Further reading

• David Barthelmy (1997–2025) “Galena”, in Webmineral Mineralogy Database.
• “galena”, in Mindat.org‎^[1], Hudson Institute of Mineralogy, 2000–2025.

Anagrams

• Angela, alnage, anlage, lagena

Catalan

Etymology

Learned borrowing from Latin galēna.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): (Central) [ɡəˈlɛ.nə]
• IPA^(key): (Balearic) [ɡəˈlə.nə]
• IPA^(key): (Valencia) [ɡaˈle.na]

Noun

galena f (plural galenes)

1. galena

Further reading

• “galena”, in Diccionari de la llengua catalana [Dictionary of the Catalan Language] (in Catalan), second edition, Institute of Catalan Studies [Catalan: Institut d'Estudis Catalans], 2007 April
• “galena”, in Gran Diccionari de la Llengua Catalana, Grup Enciclopèdia Catalana, 2025.
• “galena” in Diccionari normatiu valencià, Acadèmia Valenciana de la Llengua.
• “galena” in Diccionari català-valencià-balear, Antoni Maria Alcover and Francesc de Borja Moll, 1962.

Italian

Etymology

Learned borrowing from Latin galēna.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ɡaˈlɛ.na/
• Rhymes: -ɛna
• Hyphenation: ga‧lè‧na

Noun

galena f (plural galene)

1. galena

Further reading

• galena in Treccani.it – Vocabolario Treccani on line, Istituto dell'Enciclopedia Italiana

Latin

Etymology

Possibly from Proto-Indo-European *ǵl̥h₂-es- (“glimmering, cheerful”). See cognate Ancient Greek γαλήνη (galḗnē, “serenity, calmness; type of metal mineral”).

Pronunciation

• (Classical Latin) IPA^(key): [ɡaˈɫeː.na]
• (modern Italianate Ecclesiastical) IPA^(key): [ɡaˈlɛː.na]

Noun

galēna f (genitive galēnae); first declension

1. lead ore
   • 77–79, Pliny the Elder, “Silver” (chapter 31), in Natural History, Book 33:

     Excoqui non potest, nisi cum plumbo nigro aut cum vena plumbi – galenam vocant – quae iuxta argenti venas plerumque reperitur.

     It cannot be smelted, except together with lead or with the vein of lead – they call it galena – that is mostly found next to veins of silver.

   • 1st century, inscription on a lead ingot; published in Heinrich Dressel, Corpus Inscriptionum Latinarum [Corpus of Latin Inscriptions]‎^[2], Berlin: Georg Reimer, 1899, section 7916, page 987:

     societ[atis]·argent[iarium] fod[inarum]·mont[is]·ilvcr[?] galena

     SIL[VER] CO[MPANY]; MIN[ES] OF MT ILUCR[?]; GALENA;
     that is, “property of the Silver (Mines) Company; from the mines of Mount Ilucr[...]; made of galena.”

2. (by extension) the dross that remains after smelting this ore
   • 77–79, Pliny the Elder, “The Ores of Lead” (chapter 47), in Natural History, Book 34:

     Huius qui primus fuit in fornacibus liquor stagnum appellatur; qui secundus argentum; quod remansit in fornacibus, galena, quae fit tertia portio additae venae; haec rursus conflata dat nigrum plumbum deductis partibus nonis II.

     That which first becomes liquid in the furnaces is called stagnum; that which is second is silver; what remains in the furnaces is galena, which forms a third portion of the added vein; when again made to fuse this gives black lead, two-ninths having been deducted.

   • 77–79, Pliny the Elder, “Molybdaena: Fifteen Remedies” (chapter 53), in Natural History, Book 34:

     Est et molybdaena, quam alio loco galenam appellavimus, vena argenti plumbique communis.

     There is also molybdaena, which elsewhere we have called galena, a mineral of silver and lead together.

Declension

First-declension noun.

	singular	plural
nominative	galēna	galēnae
genitive	galēnae	galēnārum
dative	galēnae	galēnīs
accusative	galēnam	galēnās
ablative	galēnā	galēnīs
vocative	galēna	galēnae

Descendants

• Catalan: galena
• English: galena
• French: galène
• Italian: galena
• Spanish: galena

References

• “gălēna”, in Charlton T. Lewis and Charles Short (1879) A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
• gălēna in Gaffiot, Félix (1934) Dictionnaire illustré latin-français, Hachette, page 701/2.
• “galēna” on page 753/1 of the Oxford Latin Dictionary (1st ed., 1968–82)

Anagrams

• lagena

Polish

Etymology

Learned borrowing from Latin galēna.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ɡaˈlɛ.na/
• Rhymes: -ɛna
• Syllabification: ga‧le‧na

Noun

galena f

1. (mineralogy) galena

   Synonym: galenit

Declension

Declension of galena

	singular
nominative	galena
genitive	galeny
dative	galenie
accusative	galenę
instrumental	galeną
locative	galenie
vocative	galeno

Related terms

adjective

• galenitowy

noun

• galenit

Further reading

• galena in Polish dictionaries at PWN

Portuguese

Etymology

Learned borrowing from Latin galēna.

Pronunciation

 

• (Brazil) IPA^(key): /ɡaˈlẽ.nɐ/

• (Brazil) IPA^(key): /ɡaˈlẽ.nɐ/
  • (Southern Brazil) IPA^(key): /ɡaˈle.na/

• (Portugal) IPA^(key): /ɡɐˈle.nɐ/

• Hyphenation: ga‧le‧na

Noun

galena f (plural galenas)

1. (mineralogy) galena (mineral mined as an ore of lead)

Spanish

Etymology

Learned borrowing from Latin galēna.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ɡaˈlena/ [ɡaˈle.na]
• Rhymes: -ena
• Syllabification: ga‧le‧na

Noun

galena f (plural galenas)

1. (mineralogy) galena

Noun

galena f (plural galenas)

1. female equivalent of galeno

Further reading

• “galena”, in Diccionario de la lengua española [Dictionary of the Spanish Language] (in Spanish), online version 23.8, Royal Spanish Academy [Spanish: Real Academia Española], 2024 December 10