silver

Etymology

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 (sĭrebro), 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 [script needed] (sarpu, “refined silver”), from the verb [script needed] (sarapu, “to refine”)).

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

Pronunciation

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /ˈsɪl.və/
• (General American) IPA^(key): /ˈsɪl.vɚ/

• Audio (US)

  (file)

• Rhymes: -ɪlvə(ɹ)
• Hyphenation: sil‧ver

Noun

silver (countable and uncountable, plural silvers)

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.

   silver colour:  

Adjective

silver (comparative more silver, superlative most silver)

Silver Roman artwork

1. Made from silver.
   • 1918, W. B. Maxwell, chapter 10, in The Mirror and the Lamp:

     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.

   • 1959, Georgette Heyer, chapter 1, in The Unknown Ajax:

     But Richmond […] appeared to lose himself in his own reflections. Some pickled crab, which he had not touched, had been removed with a damson pie; and his sister saw, peeping around the massive silver epergne that almost obscured him from her view, that he had eaten no more than a spoonful of that either.

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.

See also

Verb

silver (third-person singular simple present silvers, present participle silvering, simple past and past participle silvered)

1. To acquire a silvery colour.
   • (Can we date this quote?) Lewis Wallace

     The eastern sky began to silver and shine.

   • 1907, Robert William Chambers, chapter VIII, in The Younger Set (Project Gutenberg; EBook #14852), New York, N.Y.: D. Appleton & Company, published 1 February 2005 (Project Gutenberg version), OCLC 24962326:

     But when the moon rose and the breeze awakened, and the sedges stirred, and the cat's-paws raced across the moonlit ponds, and the far surf off Wonder Head intoned the hymn of the four winds, the trinity, earth and sky and water, became one thunderous symphony— a harmony of sound and colour silvered to a monochrome by the moon.

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.
   • (Can we date this quote?) Alexander Pope

     And smiling calmness silvered o'er the deep.

4. To make hoary, or white, like silver.
   • (Can we date this quote?) John Gay

     His head was silvered o'er with age.

Further reading

• “Silver” in David Barthelmy, Webmineral Mineralogy Database, 1997–.
• silver mindat.org‎, Hudson Institute of Mineralogy, accessed 29 August 2016

Anagrams

• Elvirs, levirs, livers, livres, rivels, sliver, svirel

Etymology

From Old Dutch silver, from Proto-Germanic *silubrą.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈzɪlvər/

Noun

silver n

1. silver

Further reading

• “silver”, in Vroegmiddelnederlands Woordenboek, 2000
• “silver”, in Middelnederlandsch Woordenboek, 1929

Noun

silver (plural silvers)

1. silver (metal)

Alternative forms

• sylver, sølver

Etymology

From Old Norse silfr, from Proto-Germanic *silubrą.

Noun

silver n

1. silver

Etymology

From Old Swedish silver, from Old Norse silfr, from Proto-Germanic *silubrą.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈsɪlvɛr/

• Audio

  (file)

Noun

silver n (uncountable)

1. silver
2. silver, coins of silver
3. silver, cutlery of silver
4. a silver medal, for 2nd place in a competition

References

• silver in Svenska Akademiens Ordlista över svenska språket (13th ed., online)