silver
UK /ˈsɪl.və/ · US /ˈsɪl.vɚ/ noun, adjective, verb, proper noun
Forms silvers silvering silvered
- noun (uncountable) A lustrous, white, metallic element, atomic number 47, atomic weight 107.87, symbol Ag.
- noun (collectively) Coins made from silver or any similar white metal.
- noun (collectively) Cutlery and other eating utensils, whether silver or made from some other white metal.
- noun (collectively) Any items made from silver or any other white metal.
- noun (uncountable) A shiny gray color.
- noun (countable) A silver medal.
- noun Anything resembling silver; something shiny and white.
- adjective Made from silver.
- adjective Made from another white metal.
- adjective Having a color like silver: a shiny gray.
- adjective Denoting the twenty-fifth anniversary, especially of a wedding.
- adjective (of commercial services) Premium, but inferior to gold.
- adjective Pertaining or relating to elderly persons.
- adjective Having the clear, musical tone of silver; soft and clear in sound. “a silver-voiced young girl”
- verb To acquire a silvery colour.
- verb To cover with silver, or with a silvery metal. “to silver a pin; to silver a glass mirror plate with an amalgam of tin and mercury”
- verb To polish like silver; to impart a brightness to, like that of silver.
- verb To make hoary, or white, like silver.
- proper noun An English surname originating as an occupation for a silversmith or a rich man, or for someone having silvery gray hair or living by a silvery brook.
- proper noun A surname from German.
Synonyms
☽ ☾ argyr- silverware E174 silvern silvery Ag atomic number 47 ash grey ash gray silver grey silver gray flatware silver medal argent silverish eloquent facile fluent silver-tongued smooth-spoken
Etymology
Inherited from Middle English silver, selver, sulver, from Old English seolfor, from Proto-West Germanic *silubr, from Proto-Germanic *silubrą (“silver”), of uncertain origin.
Cognate with Scots siller (“silver”), Saterland Frisian Säälwer (“silver”), West Frisian sulver (“silver”), Dutch zilver (“silver”), German Low German Silver, Sülver (“silver”), German Silber (“silver”), Swedish silver (“silver”), Icelandic silfur (“silver”). The Germanic word has parallels in Baltic and Slavic (Old Church Slavonic сьрєбро (sĭrebro), Lithuanian sidabras), Celtic (Celtiberian silaPur-), and outside Indo-European, in Basque zilar and Proto-Berber *a-ẓrəf, but the ultimate origin of the word is unknown.
Adjective sense 4 (“denoting a twenty-fifth anniversary”) generalized from silver wedding, itself a calque of German Silberhochzeit.
As a surname, anglicised from the German Jewish ornamental surname Silber.
Webster’s 1913
- noun A soft white metallic element, sonorous, ductile, very malleable, and capable of a high degree of polish. It is found native, and also combined with sulphur, arsenic, antimony, chlorine, etc., in the minerals argentite, proustite, pyrargyrite, ceragyrite, etc. Silver is one of the "noble" metals, so-called, not being easily oxidized, and is used for coin, jewelry, plate, and a great variety of articles. Symbol Ag (Argentum). Atomic weight 107.7. Specific gravity 10.5.
- noun Coin made of silver; silver money.
- adjective Of or pertaining to silver; made of silver; as, silver leaf; a silver cup.
- adjective Resembling silver. Specifically: (a) Bright; resplendent; white. "Silver hair." Shak.
Etymology [OE. silver, selver, seolver, AS. seolfor, siolfur, siolufr, silofr, sylofr; akin to OS. silubar, OFries. selover, D. zilver, LG. sulver, OHG. silabar, silbar, G. silber, Icel. silfr, Sw. silfver, Dan. sölv, Goth. silubr, Russ. serebro, Lith. sidabras; of unknown origin.]
Sources: Wiktionary · WordNet 3.0 · Webster’s 1913 — from the Wiktionary entry “silver”, CC BY-SA 4.0. Details