Etymology

nonmetal

N1O1N1M3E1T1A1L1

Today it means: An element, such as phosphorus or chlorine, that does not have the chemical or physical properties of a metal. Full definition →

English metal ← Middle English metal ← Old French meta
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The story

  1. Proto-Indo-European*né
  2. Proto-Germanic*ne
  3. Proto-Indo-European*ís?
  4. Proto-Indo-European*h₁óynos
  5. Proto-Germanic*ainaz
  6. Proto-Germanic*nainaz
  7. Proto-West Germanic*nain
  8. Old Englishnān
  9. Middle Englishnon
  10. Old Englishnān
  11. Old Englishnān-
  12. Middle Englishnon-
  13. Englishnon-
  14. Ancient Greekμέταλλον (métallon)
  15. Latinmetallum
  16. Old Frenchmeta
  17. Middle Englishmetal
  18. Englishmetal
  19. English todaynonmetal

From non- + metal.

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.