Word of the Day ·

N1I1C3K5E1L1

nickel

/ˈnɪk.əl/

noun

What it means

  1. uncountableA silvery elemental metal with an atomic number of 28 and symbol Ni.
  2. CanadaUScountableA coin worth 5 cents.

    That is just objectively terrifying regardless of contexts! He looks like if a nickel did cocaine!

    2017 October 8, “Confederacy”, in Last Week Tonight with John Oliver, season 4, episode 26, John Oliver (actor), via HBO

    Synonyms: jitney

  3. USbroadlycountableslanguncountableFive dollars.

In a sentence

That is just objectively terrifying regardless of contexts! He looks like if a nickel did cocaine!

2017 October 8, “Confederacy”, in Last Week Tonight with John Oliver, season 4, episode 26, John Oliver (actor), via HBO

Where it comes from

  1. Ancient Greekνῑ́κη (nī́kē)
  2. Proto-Hellenic*lāwós
  3. Ancient Greekλᾱός (lāós)
  4. Ancient GreekΝῑκόλᾱος (Nīkólāos)
  5. LatinNīcolāus
  6. GermanNikolaus
  7. GermanNicke
  8. Englishnickel

Borrowed from German Nickel, first used in a text by the Swedish mineralogist Axel F. Cronstedt as an abbreviation of Kupfernickel (“a mineral containing copper and nickel”), from Kupfer (“copper”) + Nickel (“insignificant person, goblin”), originally nickname of Nikolaus (“Nicholas”), due to the deceptive silver colour of the relatively valueless ore. Compare cobalt as related to kobolds.

Full entry for nickel →

Subscribe with RSS.