Meanings
- obsoleteuncountablechemistryplatinum.
She recites the principal metals, and has Sophie repeat them: gold, silver, platina, quicksilver, copper, iron, lead, tin, aluminium.
2002, Michel Faber, The Crimson Petal and the White, Canongate Books (2010), page 792
Synonyms & antonyms
Origin
- Spanishplatina“little silver”
- Englishplatina
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.
More words from Spanish
Full word history & related roots →Rhymes & wordplay
Anagrams
Cite this entry
platina. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 3, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/platina
“platina.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/platina. Accessed November 3, 2026.
WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “platina,” accessed November 3, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/platina.
Source: platina on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.