zinc

English

Chemical element
Zn
Previous: copper (Cu)
Next: gallium (Ga)

Zinc cube, fragment and dendrite.

Etymology

From German Zink, related to Zinke (“point, prong”), from Middle High German zinke, from Old High German zinko (“prong, tine”), allied to zint (“a jag, point”), from Proto-Germanic *tindaz (“prong, pinnacle”), from Proto-Indo-European *h₃dónts (“tooth, projection”). Cognate with Old English tind (“tine, prong”), Middle Low German tinde, Icelandic tindur (“spike, tooth of a rake or harrow, pinnacle, peak, battlement”). See also Dutch tinne (“battlement”), German Zinne (“pinnacle, battlement”), Danish tinde (“pinnacle, battlement”), Swedish tinne (“tooth of a rake”), More at tine. Doublet of zincum.

Pronunciation

• (US) enPR: zingk, IPA^(key): /zɪŋk/

• Audio (US)

  (file)

• Rhymes: -ɪŋk

Noun

zinc (countable and uncountable, plural zincs)

2. A chemical element (symbol Zn) with an atomic number of 30, a blue-silvery metal that is slightly brittle at room temperature and tarnishes slightly in moist air.
3. (countable) A single atom of this element.
4. (Nigeria) A corrugated iron roof.
5. (UK, dated, colloquial) A zinc countertop.
   • 1904, The Saturday Review of Politics, Literature, Science and Art:

     Then, three workmen throwing dice for drinks. And their heads come sharply together as they count the scores. And so violently do they throw the dice that they shoot off "the zinc" on to the floor.

   • 2010, Chris Ackerley, Demented Particulars, page 44:

     Even if there were a Chef and Brewer near Marble Arch, the name suggests a pint and pie, not a prawn and tomato sandwich and “a dock glass of white port off the zinc”; i.e., a small glass of a fine aperitif, at the counter […]

Synonyms

• zincum (archaic)

Derived terms

element

• Berne Zinc tablet
• butter of zinc
• cadmium zinc telluride
• flowers of zinc
• platinum-zinc
• sulfate of zinc, sulphate of zinc
• uranyl zinc acetate
• zinc acetate
• zinc-air
• zinc alum
• zinc amide
• zincate
• zinc blende
• zinc bloom
• zinc-bloom
• zinc carbonate
• zinc-carbon battery
• zinc chills
• zinc chloride
• zinc chromate
• zinc chromate hydroxide
• zinc chrome
• zinc dichloride
• zinc dust
• zinced, zincked
• zinc finger
• zinc foil
• zinc gluconate
• zinc gluconate glycine
• zinc gray, zinc grey
• zinc green
• zinc group
• zinc hydroxide
• zincian
• zincic, zinckic
• zinciferous, zinckiferous, zinkiferous
• zincification
• zincify
• zincing, zincking
• zinc iron
• zincite, zinckite, zinkite
• zinc methyl
• zinco-
• zincography
• zincoid
• zinc oxide
• zinc powder
• zinc pyrithione
• zinc roof
• zinc selenide
• zinc shakes
• zinc spar
• zinc spinel
• zinc sponge
• zinc stearate
• zinc sulfate
• zinc sulfide, zinc sulphide
• zinc sulphate
• zinc uranyl acetate
• zinc white
• zincy, zincky, zinky
• zinc yellow
• zineb

 

Related terms

• zincode
• zincous

Translations

element

• Afrikaans: sink (af)
• Albanian: zink (sq) m
• Amharic: ዚንክ (zink)
• Arabic: خَارَصِين (ar) m (ḵāraṣīn), تُوتِيَاء m (tūtiyāʔ), زِنْك m (zink)
• Armenian: ցինկ (hy) (cʻink)
• Asturian: cinc (ast) m
• Azerbaijani: sink (az)
• Basque: zinka
• Belarusian: цынк m (cynk)
• Bengali: দস্তা (bn) (dosta)
• Berber:

  Tashelhit: aqzdir m

• Breton: zink (br) m
• Bulgarian: цинк m (cink)
• Burmese: သွပ် (my) (swap), ဇင့်ခ် (jang.hk)
• Catalan: zinc (ca)
• Central Melanau: zink
• Cherokee: ᎦᏙᎤᎳᏂ (gadoulani)
• Chinese:

  Mandarin: 鋅／锌 (zh) (xīn)

• Cornish: synk
• Czech: zinek (cs) m
• Danish: zink (da) c or n
• Dutch: zink (nl) n
• Esperanto: zinko (eo)
• Estonian: tsink (et)
• Farefare: zɩŋk
• Faroese: sink
• Finnish: sinkki (fi)
• French: zinc (fr) m
• Friulian: zinc
• Galician: cinc (gl)
• Georgian: თუთია (tutia)
• German: Zink (de) n
• Greek: ψευδάργυρος (el) m (psevdárgyros), τσίγκος (el) m (tsígkos)
• Greenlandic: zinki
• Hebrew: אָבָץ (he) m (avats)
• Hindi: जस्ता (hi) m (jastā)
• Hungarian: cink (hu)
• Icelandic: sink (is)
• Ido: zinko (io)
• Indonesian: seng (id)
• Ingrian: sinkki
• Interlingua: zinc
• Irish: sinc (ga)
• Italian: zinco (it) m
• Japanese: 亜鉛 (ja) (あえん, aen)
• Kashubian: cynk
• Kazakh: мырыш (kk) (myryş)
• Khmer: ស័ង្កសី (km) (sangkaʼsəy), សាំង្កសី (km) (sangkaʼsəy), ស័ង្គសី (sangkaʼsəy)
• Korean: 아연(亞鉛) (ko) (ayeon)
• Kyrgyz: цинк (ky) (tsink)
• Lao: ສັງກະສີ (sang ka sī)
• Latin: (Medieval) zincum (la)
• Latvian: cinks m
• Lingala: zɛ́nki class 9a/10a
• Lithuanian: cinkas (lt)
• Luxembourgish: Zénk (lb)
• Macedonian: цинк m (cink)
• Malay: zink (ms), seng (ms), timah sari, ayan (ms)
• Malayalam: നാകം (ml) (nākaṁ), വെളുത്തീയം (ml) (veḷuttīyaṁ)
• Maltese: żingu m
• Manx: shinc m, meain ghorrym f
• Maori: konutea, tingiki
• Mongolian: цайр (mn) (cajr), цинк (cink)
• Naro: nxam
• Navajo: béésh dootłʼizh
• Norwegian:

  Bokmål: sink (no) m or n

  Nynorsk: sink (nn) m or n

• Occitan: zinc (oc) m
• Pashto: زينک m (zink), جست (ps) m (ǰast)
• Persian: روی (fa) (ruy)
• Polish: cynk (pl) m
• Portuguese: zinco (pt) m
• Romanian: zinc (ro) n
• Russian: цинк (ru) m (cink)
• Scottish Gaelic: sinc
• Serbo-Croatian:

  Cyrillic: ци̏нк m

  Roman: cȉnk (sh) m

• Slovak: zinok (sk) m
• Slovene: cink (sl) m
• Spanish: zinc (es) m, cinc (es) m
• Swahili: zinki class 9/10
• Swedish: zink (sv) n
• Tagalog: sink (tl), singk
• Tajik: руҳ (ruh)
• Tamil: நாகம் (ta) (nākam)
• Thai: สังกะสี (th) (sǎng-gà-sǐi)
• Tibetan: ཏི་ཚ (ti tsha)
• Turkish: çinko (tr)
• Turkmen: sink
• Ukrainian: цинк m (cynk)
• Urdu: جست (jast)
• Uyghur: سىنك (sink)
• Uzbek: rux (uz), sink (uz)

  Cyrillic: рух (rux)

• Vietnamese: kẽm (vi)
• Volapük: zinkin (vo)
• Welsh: zinc (cy), sinc (cy)
• West Frisian: sink n
• Yiddish: צינק n (tsink)

See also

other terms of interest

• blende
• brass
• calamine
• franklinite
• German silver
• nickelled silver
• smithsonite
• solder
• spelter
• sphalerite
• typewriter metal

 

Verb

zinc (third-person singular simple present zincs, present participle zincing or zinking or zincking, simple past and past participle zinced or zinked or zincked)

1. (rare) To electroplate with zinc.
2. (rare) To coat with sunblock incorporating zinc oxide.

Synonyms

• (electroplate with zinc): galvanize

Translations

electroplate with zinc

• Catalan: zincar (ca)
• German: verzinken (de)
• Italian: zincare (it)

coat with sunblock incorporating zinc oxide

The translations below need to be checked and inserted above into the appropriate translation tables. See instructions at Wiktionary:Entry layout § Translations.

Translations to be checked

• French: zinguer (fr)
• Polish: cynkować
• Russian: оцинковать (ru) (ocinkovatʹ)

Anagrams

• ICZN

Catalan

Chemical element
Zn
Previous: coure (Cu)
Next: gal·li (Ga)

Etymology

Borrowed from French zinc, from German Zink.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): (Central) [ˈziŋ]
• IPA^(key): (Balearic, Valencian) [ˈziŋk]

• Audio (Valencian)

  (file)

Noun

zinc m (uncountable)

1. zinc

Derived terms

• zincar

Further reading

• “zinc” in Diccionari de la llengua catalana, segona edició, Institut d’Estudis Catalans.
• “zinc”, in Gran Diccionari de la Llengua Catalana, Grup Enciclopèdia Catalana, 2024
• “zinc” in Diccionari normatiu valencià, Acadèmia Valenciana de la Llengua.
• “zinc” in Diccionari català-valencià-balear, Antoni Maria Alcover and Francesc de Borja Moll, 1962.

French

Etymology 1

Borrowed from German Zink.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /zɛ̃ɡ/, /zɛ̃k/
• Both pronunciations are standard. While that with /ɡ/ is traditionally preferred, that with /k/ is reinforced by the spelling.

• audio

  (file)

Noun

zinc m (plural zincs)

1. (metallurgy, chemistry) zinc
2. (informal) counter (in a bar, café, etc), bar
   • 1980, “Où c’est qu’j’ai mis mon flingue?”, in Marche à l’ombre, performed by Renaud:

     Moi, mon av’nir est sur le zinc / D’un bistrot des plus cradingues

     (please add an English translation of this quotation)

3. (informal) small plane

Related terms

• dézinguer
• zincifère
• zincique
• zincographie
• zincure
• zingage (zincage)
• zinguer
• zingueur

 

Further reading

• “zinc”, in Trésor de la langue française informatisé [Digitized Treasury of the French Language], 2012.

Etymology 2

Clipping of zincou, verlan form of cousin (“cousin”).

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /zɛ̃k/

Noun

zinc m (plural zincs)

1. (Verlan) dude, man

Occitan

Pronunciation

• Audio

  (file)

Noun

zinc m (uncountable)

1. zinc

Romanian

Chemical element
Zn
Previous: cupru (Cu)
Next: galiu (Ga)

Etymology

Borrowed from French zinc, from German Zink.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /zink/

Noun

zinc n (uncountable)

1. zinc (metal)

Declension

declension of zinc (singular only)

	singular
n gender	indefinite articulation	definite articulation
nominative/accusative	(un) zinc	zincul
genitive/dative	(unui) zinc	zincului
vocative	zincule

References

• zinc in DEX online—Dicționare ale limbii române (Dictionaries of the Romanian language)

Spanish

Pronunciation

• Audio

  (file)

Noun

zinc m (uncountable)

1. Alternative spelling of cinc

Further reading

• “zinc”, in Diccionario de la lengua española, Vigésima tercera edición, Real Academia Española, 2014