silver

Meanings

Noun

• A lustrous, white, metallic element, atomic number 47, atomic weight 107.87, symbol Ag.
• Coins made from silver or any similar white metal.
• Cutlery and other eating utensils, whether silver or made from some other white metal.
• Any items made from silver or any other white metal.
• A shiny gray color.
• a silver medal
• Anything resembling silver; something shiny and white.

Adjective

• Made from silver.
• Made from another white metal.
• Having a color like silver: a shiny gray.
• Denoting the twenty-fifth anniversary, especially of a wedding.
• Premium, but inferior to gold.
• Having the clear, musical tone of silver; soft and clear in sound.

Verb

• To acquire a silvery colour.
• To cover with silver, or with a silvery metal.
• To polish like silver; to impart a brightness to, like that of silver.
• To make hoary, or white, like silver.

Related

Similar words

• argyr-
• silverware
• E174 (when used as a food colouring)
• silvern
• silvery

Origin

• From Middle English silver, selver, sulver, from Old English seolfor, seolofor, from Proto-West Germanic *silubr, from Proto-Germanic *silubrą, of uncertain origin.
• Cognate with Saterland Frisian Säälwer ("silver"), West Frisian sulver ("silver"), Dutch zilver ("silver"), German Low German Silver, Sülver, 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 and Proto-Berber *a-ẓrəf, but the ultimate origin of the word is unknown.
• Adjective sense of twenty-fifth wedding anniversary generalized from silver wedding, from German Silberhochzeit, silberne Hochzeit.