Silver

Pronunciation

• Rhymes: -ɪlvÉ™(ɹ)
• Hyphenation: sil + ver

Origin

From Middle English silver, selver, sulver, from Old English seolfor, seolofor ("silver"), from Proto-Germanic *silubrą ("silver"), from Proto-Indo-European *silubʰr-, *silebʰr- ("silver"). Cognate with Saterland Frisian Selwer ("silver"), West Frisian sulver ("silver"), Dutch zilver ("silver"), 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, Lithuanian sidabras), Celtic (Celtiberian silaPur-), and outside Indo-European, in Basque (zilar, zilhar and further dialectal variants) and perhaps Berber (Tashelhit aẓrf), but the ultimate origin of the word is unknown. A Wanderwort of ultimately Semitic origin has been suggested (Akkadian sarpu "refined silver", from the verb sarapu "to refine").

Adjective sense of twenty-fifth wedding anniversary generalized from silver wedding, from German Silberhochzeit, silberne Hochzeit.

Full definition of silver

Noun

1. (uncountable) A lustrous, white, metallic element, atomic number 47, atomic weight 107.87, symbol Ag.
2. collectively Coins made from silver or any similar white metal.
3. collectively Cutlery and other eating utensils, whether silver or made from some other white metal.
4. collectively Any items made from silver or any other white metal.
5. (countable) A shiny gray color.

Synonyms

• (metallic element) argyr-
• (white-metal coins) argyr-
• (cutlery and other eating utensils) silverware
• E174 (when used as a food colouring)

Derived terms

Related terms

• quicksilver
• silver glance, silver-glance
• silverling
• silvern
• thirty pieces of silver

Adjective

1. Made from silver.
• 1918, W. B. Maxwell, The Mirror and the Lamp Chapter 10, He looked round the poor room, at the distempered walls, and the bad engravings in meretricious frames, the crinkly paper and wax flowers on the chiffonier; and he thought of a room like Father Bryan's, with panelling, with cut glass, with tulips in silver pots, such a room as he had hoped to have for his own.
2. Made from another white metal.
3. Having a color like silver: a shiny gray.
4. Denoting the twenty-fifth anniversary, especially of a wedding.
• 1994, “Mate matching” in Accent on Living, v 38, n 4 (Spring), p 52:Mostly, these have been relationships of 10 or less years. However, one respondent has celebrated her silver wedding anniversary.
5. (of commercial services) Premium, but inferior to gold.

Synonyms

• (having a color like silver) silvery

Related terms

• silver-feast
• silver wedding

Derived terms

Verb

1. To acquire a silvery colour.
• L. WallaceThe eastern sky began to silver and shine.
2. 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
3. To polish like silver; to impart a brightness to, like that of silver.
• Alexander PopeAnd smiling calmness silvered o'er the deep.
4. To make hoary, or white, like silver.
• GayHis head was silvered o'er with age.

Anagrams

• livers
• sliver