Etymologically
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metal

This is the current revision of this entry, as edited by bogdan on 15 October 2026 at 19:27. This address is a permanent link to this version.
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Pronunciation

  • IPA: UK /ˈmet.ᵊl/, US /ˈmet̬.ᵊl/[1]

Etymology

It is borrowed from Old French metal (“metal; material, substance”),[2][3] from Latin metallum (“metal, mineral; mine, quarry”),[2][3] from Ancient Greek μέταλλον (métallon, “mine, quarry; later metal, ore”),[2][3] probably a back-formation from μεταλλεύω (metalleúō, “to mine, quarry”), a word of unknown origin.[2][3] A link with Greek metallân “to seek after” has been suggested, though Beekes finds it hardly convincing.[2][4]

Earliest recorded meaning

About 1250, in the Story of Genesis and Exodus,[3] and the mid-13th century in Etymonline.[2] The OED dates its first examples to between 1297 and 1300–1400.[5]

Semantic evolution

The idea was based on the six metals known from antiquity: gold, silver, copper, iron, lead and tin.[2] Metal and mettle were once one word, both meaning a material and a quality;[6][7] in the 17th century the quality came to be spirit, first of horses, and by the mid-18th century the spelling mettle was kept for this sense and metal for the material.[6] Jeremy Taylor used metal for “mine”, as Latin metallum.[8][5] The adjective, “made of metal”, is from the late 14th century,[2] and metalwork by 1724.[2] Broken stone for roads is metal in British use, and the verb “to surface a road” is from the 19th century.[9][5] As short for heavy metal music it is by 1980.[2]

Timeline

  • c. 1250 – metal.[3]
  • late 14th century – adjective, made of metal.[2]
  • 1552 – figuratively, temperament.[5]
  • 1617 – verb, to furnish with metal.[5][4]
  • 1724 – metalwork.[2]
  • mid-18th century – mettle separated.[6]
  • 1980 – heavy-metal music.[2]

Modern meaning

Noun

  1. Any of a class of elements, such as iron, copper or gold, that are usually shiny, good conductors of heat and electricity, and can be melted, hammered or drawn into wire.
  2. An alloy of such elements, such as brass or steel.
  3. Broken stone used for roads or railway beds.
  4. (music) heavy metal.

Verb

  1. To cover or surface a road with broken stones.

Word family

  • metallike
  • heavy metal
  • mettle
  • metallic
  • metallurgy
  • medal
  • metalwork

References

  1. ^ Jones, Daniel (2011), Cambridge English Pronouncing Dictionary, 18th ed., ed. Peter Roach, Jane Setter and John Esling, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press
  2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
  3. ^ a b c d e f Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
  4. ^ a b Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
  5. ^ a b c d e Simpson, J. A.; Weiner, E. S. C., eds. (1989), The Oxford English Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press
  6. ^ a b c Cresswell, Julia (2021), Oxford Dictionary of Word Origins, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
  7. ^ The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (2000), 4th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin
  8. ^ Trench, Richard Chenevix (1859), A Select Glossary of English Words Used Formerly in Senses Different from Their Present, London: John W. Parker
  9. ^ The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (1992), 3rd ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin