Etymology

platinum

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Today it means: The chemical element with atomic number 78 and symbol Pt; a dense, malleable, ductile, highly unreactive, silverish-white transition metal of great value. Full definition →

Spanish platina ← Vulgar Latin *plattus ← Ancient Greek πλατύς (platús)
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The story

  1. Proto-Indo-European*pleth₂-
  2. Proto-Indo-European*pléth₂us
  3. Proto-Hellenic*plətús
  4. Ancient Greekπλατύς (platús)
  5. Vulgar Latin*plattus
  6. Spanishplata
  7. Spanishplatina
  8. English todayplatinum

From Spanish platina (“little silver”) del Pinto ("of the Pinto") + -um. 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 Gran Colombia where Europeans discovered it being mined by Native Americans. Doublet of platina.

Words from the same roots

Spanishplatina all →

platina

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.