The story
- Spanish · derived fromplatina“little silver”
- English todayplatina
From Spanish platina (“little silver”) del Pinto ("of the Pinto"). It was called "little" (or "lesser") silver because the metal was found as an impurity in gold, and del Pinto for the Pinto River in Grand Columbia where Europeans discovered it being mined by Native Americans. Doublet of platinum.
Words from the same roots
Spanishplatina all →
platinum
Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.