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Words for  Metal(s)
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Words for Metals
In
the
Languages of the World
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History
of Metals
Background Material
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The prehistoric
and historic periods of Man
are first divided into "stone
ages", the
so-called
Paleolithic (Old Stone
Age) and
Neolithic (New Stone Age).
The Stone Ages are followed by the
Ages of
Metal.
The first
metal
period is the "Bronze Age",
the beginning of which is sometimes called
the Chalcolithic
(Copper-Stone) Age:
"Copper was
known
in east Anatolia by 6500 BC
[some researchers point to
a possible origin in the Vinca Culture]
... by the middle of the 4th millenium ... in Mesopotamia....
by 3000 BC the use of copper
was well-known in the Middle East,
had extended westward into the Mediterranean area,
and was beginning to infiltrate
the Neolithic cultures of Europe ...."
(Encyclopaedia Britannica under "Bronze Age").
The ancient terms
for the metals
are discussed by Armas Salonen
"Alte
Substrata- und Kulturwoerter im
Arabischen",
Studia Orientalia, Vol. XVII,
Helsinki, 1952).
Below,
to
Salonen's lists of the ancient terms for the metals in the
Fertile Crescent, LexiLine has
added the
Baltic comparables
based on P. Schmidt's observation
that:
"The ancient
indigenous
Baltic word for copper
(Latvian vars, Lithuanian varias,
Old
Prussian wargien)
indicates that it was inherited
from some
ancient period,
since it is not borrowed either from the
Slavic or Germanic peoples...."
The word vars
was not "inherited" at all,
but is indigenous to
Baltic viz.
Indo-European peoples
as one can see from the terms for "copper" below.
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Words for Metals
According
to
Salonen
Baltic
Terms
added by LexiLine
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Sumerian
KAxUD.BAR (or) UDxKA.BAR
(or) SI.BAR
Latvian varš
(pronounced "varsh"), dim. VARiņš
Lithuanian varis viz. varias
Old Prussian wargien
Latvian svars "weight"
< *sa-VARS
Akkadian SIPARRU Hebrew SEPER
Arabic SIFRun
Latin KUPRUM
but here with a different word root
Sumerian URUDU ?
("copper, copper colored?)
Latvian RUDU- "copper colored"
Latvian RUDVARIS (var. RUDU VARA )
Akkadian
ABARU
(also magnesite?)
Aramaic 'ABARA
Hebrew 'OPARET
Armenian KAPAR
Arabic 'ABARun
Arabic 'ANBAR
= AMBER
Hebrew 'INBAR = AMBER
German
BERNstein
Hungarian BOROstyán
but in "the
lands of amber"
Latvian dzintars = AMBER
Lithuanian gintaras = AMBER
whereas we see a "combined" form in
Maltese għanbar
where Lithuanian gin- is surely equivalent to Maltese
għan
and the
-bar element thus forms the second half of the word
so that -tar must be a variant of -bar
whence surely the origin of the derived Latvian tērauds "steel"
Sumerian
KU(g).AN.A(k)
Akkadian ANAKU
Hebrew 'ANAK
but also Hebrew NEKOSHET "copper"
Arabic 'ANUK
Armenian ANAG
Old Hindic NAGA
but
Latvian alva
and Lithuanian alvas "tin"
as
Latvian ALUOties
means to
"apply air to the fire in an oven"
see also
Latvian
svins "lead" svērte
"plumb" svars "weight"
to which compare Latvian varš "copper"
Lithuanian švinas ("lead, plumb")
Sumerian AN.BAR
Akkadian PAR.ZILLU
Aramaic PAR.ZEL
Hebrew BAR.ZEL
Arabic FIR.ZILun
Lithuanian geležis,
but žalvaris
(ZHAL.VARis) "bronze"
Latvian DZELS
"iron"
Latvian zelts (ZEL.TS)
"gold"
but zils
(ZILs) "blue"
see Indo-European "color
words"
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ANALYSIS
of
Two Basic Roots
for the Words for Metals
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When we examine
all of these ancient terms for metals,
we see that TWO basic roots are in evidence:
Metals as products
of smelting processes by fire
There is
a first basic root of the form "BAR, VAR, PAR"
and of course this is also the root of
FERRO-
"iron" in Latin,
which currently has a false etymology.
The correct origin will be as in Indo-European
e.g. Latvian VĀR- "to smelt,
boil"
We also see
that
the current etymology for English "COP-PER"
as allegedly rooted in Greek KUPROS
"from Cyprus" is
incorrect,
rather, the name of Cyprus surely
derives from the
word for copper.
Similarly,
we
see that origin of the English word BRONZE
traced back thus far only to Italian bronzo,
has
roots which go
back much further in BAR, perhaps in a form
such as
Latvian *BARiņš viz. VARiņš > BRONZE.
Similarly,
Latvian
ALOties
means
"to apply air to the fire in an oven"
whence
Latvian ALVA
"tin"
(also ALVS,
ALS)
Lithuanian ALVAS = tin
Old Prussian ALWIS = lead
English ALLOY and
Latin ALUM
The Latvian term thus tells us that the above words
derive from higher temperature smelting via the addition of air,
i.e. perhaps via an ancient bellows
or tuyere
(a pipe, tube or nozzle, French tuyau),
perhaps related in origin as a word to proto-Indo-European
e.g. Latvian caur "through" >
*tuyere
whence caurums "hole", through which the air was added.
It is the use of multiple air tuyeres ("air conduits")
that allows the higher temperatures found in modern metal forging.
Metals in terms of their color
There is
a second basic root variant
which derives from "color words"
comparable to Indo-European
e.g. Latvian DZELzs "iron"
which is found
also combined with BAR
in the terms of the
Fertile Crescent
such as
ZIL- with BAR
or
BAR- with ZIL.
Hence
BAR.ZEL
"iron" in Hebrew
but SIL.BER Germanic for "SIL.VER".
where the two world elements are simply reversed.
The root
element
DZEL- viz. ZIL- is found
in the Indo-European, e.g. Latvian
color root ZIL-
meaning "blue, dark blue, shiny"
viz. ZEL- meaning "gold" or as DZEL- "yellow".
Beyond those two major roots
there are some other roots....
Metals as "clumps"
(i.e. their physical mass)
Sumerian KUK for
"silver"
finds Baltic comparables in idea since
KUK- in most Latvian terms means
"clump, bud, piece".
Metals as "shiny"
(i.e. their physical appearance)
Latvian
SVINS "lead"
relates to words in Latvian meaning "shiny, burn".
SVECE
"candle" SVEĶI "candle wax, tallow"
SVIL- SVIN- ("hot, burning, celebrating, fiery"),
SVIEDRI "sweat".
Interesting
here is also that
Latvian SVEĶI
means the "resin" of trees.
All of the metal terms thus appear to go back
to only a few basic root concepts.
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