Nickel
/ˈnɪk.əl/noun
A silvery metallic chemical element, or a five-cent coin in U.S. English.
Did you know?The word entered German mining slang as a taunt: miners called the stubborn ore kupfernickel, literally “copper goblin,” because it looked like copper but yielded none.
Etymological Timeline
Middle High German
MHG
Kupfernickel
“A deceptive copper-colored ore that produced no usable copper”
18th Century
German
Nickel
“The name for the metal isolated from that ore”
1754
Swedish
nickel
“The newly identified metallic element”
Late 18th Century
English
nickel
“The chemical element”
19th Century
English
nickel
“A five-cent coin, named for its nickel content”