nickel

Meanings

Noun

• A silvery elemental metal with an atomic number of 28 and symbol Ni.
• A coin worth 5 cents.
• Five dollars.
• Five hundred dollars.
• Interstate 5, a highway that runs along the west coast of the United States.
• A playing card with the rank of five
• A five-year prison sentence.
• A defensive formation with five defensive backs, one of whom is a nickelback, instead of the more common four.

Verb

• To plate with nickel.

Origin

• Borrowed from German Nickel, first used in a text by the Swedish mineralogist Axel F. Cronstedt as an abbreviation of Kupfernickel, from Kupfer + Nickel, originally nickname of Nikolaus, due to the deceptive silver colour of the relatively valueless ore. Compare cobalt as related to kobold.