Etymologically
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zinc

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Pronunciation

Etymology

It is borrowed from German Zink,[2][3][4][5][6][7] of uncertain origin.[2][8][9][7] Most etymologists relate it to Zinke (“prong, point, spike”),[3][4][5][6][10] from Middle High German zinke, from Old High German zinko,[6][5] which is akin to zint (“point, jag”);[5][3][10] the metal would be named from the jagged or spiky shape it takes in the furnace or after cooling.[6][10][4][11] Etymonline traces the Germanic base to Proto-Indo-European *denk- (“to bite”),[3] Partridge compares Zahn (“tooth”),[12] and Klein lists the cognates Old Norse tindr (“point, top, summit”) and Old English tind (“prong, spike”), related to tine.[10][3] Skeat, on the other hand, thought it perhaps allied to Zinn (“tin”).[13] The German word is said to have been used first by Paracelsus, about 1526,[3][14] and is the source of late 17th-century French zinc, Swedish zink, Danish zink and New Latin zincum.[2] The English spelling with -c (1813) follows the French.[4][3]

Earliest recorded meaning

The bluish-white metal: 1651, as zinke, in J. French's Art of Distillation.[2][4] Dictionary.com dates the word to 1635–45.[11]

Semantic evolution

The metal's name has kept its meaning; later senses are uses of the metal.[2][8] From the 1870s zinc was a zinc plate in a voltaic battery (1876), and in South Africa and the West Indies galvanized iron, especially for roofs (1873).[2][8] After French usage, the zinc was the zinc-covered bar of a café, and by extension a café (1914).[2][8] The verb, to coat with zinc, is recorded from 1841 in Barnhart and Merriam-Webster, but only from 1843 in the OED.[4][5][2]

Timeline

  • c. 1526 – German Zink, said to be first used by Paracelsus.[3]
  • 1651 – zinke, the metal.[2][4]
  • 1813 – the spelling zinc.[4][3]
  • 1841 – verb, to coat with zinc (1843 in the OED).[4][5][2]
  • 1873 – galvanized iron (South Africa, West Indies).[2]
  • 1876 – a zinc plate in a battery.[2]
  • 1914 – the zinc-covered bar of a café.[2]

Meanings

Noun

  1. A bluish-white metallic element (symbol Zn), brittle at ordinary temperatures, used to galvanize iron, in alloys such as brass, and in batteries.[15][5][2]
  2. (chiefly South Africa and the West Indies) Galvanized iron, especially as roofing.[2][8]
  3. The zinc-covered bar of a café; by extension, a café.[2][8]

Verb

  1. To coat or treat with zinc; to galvanize: The fence posts were zinced against rust.[5][2]

Word family

  • zincky
  • zincoid
  • zincate
  • zincic
  • zinciferous
  • zincify
  • zincite
  • zincography
  • zincous
  • tine

References

  1. ^ a b Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
  2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
  3. ^ a b c d e f g h i Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
  4. ^ a b c d e f g h i Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
  5. ^ a b c d e f g h Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
  6. ^ a b c d The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
  7. ^ a b Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
  8. ^ a b c d e f Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
  9. ^ Stevenson, Angus, ed. (2010), Oxford Dictionary of English, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
  10. ^ a b c d Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
  11. ^ a b Dictionary.com Unabridged (2016), based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, New York: Random House
  12. ^ Partridge, Eric (1966), Origins: A Short Etymological Dictionary of Modern English, 4th ed., London: Routledge & Kegan Paul
  13. ^ Skeat, Walter W. (1911), A Concise Etymological Dictionary of the English Language, new ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press
  14. ^ Weekley, Ernest (1921), An Etymological Dictionary of Modern English, London: John Murray
  15. ^ Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins