gold

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See also: Gold, gòld, and gółd

English

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Chemical element
Au
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A gold nugget.

Alternative forms

Pronunciation

Etymology 1

From Middle English gold, from Old English gold (gold), from Proto-West Germanic *golþ, from Proto-Germanic *gulþą (gold), from Proto-Indo-European *ǵʰl̥h₃tóm (gold), from Proto-Indo-European *ǵʰelh₃- (yellow; gleam; to shine). Related to yellow; see there for more. Germanic cognates include Dutch goud, German Gold, Norwegian gull, Swedish guld, and cognates from other Indo-European languages include Latvian zelts, Russian зо́лото (zóloto), Persian زرد (zard, yellow, golden), Sanskrit हिरण्य (hiraṇya).

Noun

gold (countable and uncountable, plural gold or golds)

  1. (uncountable) A heavy yellow elemental metal of great value, with atomic number 79 and symbol Au.
    • 1936, Robert Frost, “The Vindictives”, in A Further Range:
      You like to hear about gold.
      A king filled his prison room
      As full as the room could hold
      To the top of his reach on the wall
      With every known shape of the stuff.
      ’Twas to buy himself off his doom.
  2. (countable or uncountable) A coin or coinage made of this material, or supposedly so.
    The pirates were searching for gold.
  3. (uncountable) A deep yellow colour, resembling the metal gold.
    gold:  
    metallic gold:  
  4. (countable) The bullseye of an archery target.
    Daniel hit the gold to win the contest.
  5. (countable) A gold medal.
    France has won three golds and five silvers.
  6. (figuratively) Anything or anyone that is very valuable.
    Synonym: good as gold
    That food mixer you gave me is absolute gold, mate!
    • 2010, Paul Hendy, Who Killed Simon Peters?:
      Now obviously this meant that I went over my allotted time, but the theatre management didn't mind because I was giving them comedy gold and that's what gets bums on seats.
    • 2012, Victor Pemberton, Leo's Girl:
      Marge Quincey didn't deserve a husband like his dad. He was pure gold, and she wasn't worth a light beside him.
  7. (slang, in the plural) A grill (jewellery worn on front teeth) made of gold.

Symbol

gold

  1. (alchemy)
Synonyms
Derived terms
Translations
See also

Adjective

gold (not generally comparable, comparative golder, superlative goldest)

  1. Made of gold.
    Synonym: golden
    a gold chain
    • 1897 December (indicated as 1898), Winston Churchill, chapter II, in The Celebrity: An Episode, New York, N.Y.: The Macmillan Company; London: Macmillan & Co., Ltd., →OCLC:
      Sunning himself on the board steps, I saw for the first time Mr. Farquhar Fenelon Cooke. [] A silver snaffle on a heavy leather watch guard which connected the pockets of his corduroy waistcoat, together with a huge gold stirrup in his Ascot tie, sufficiently proclaimed his tastes.
  2. Having the colour of gold.
    Synonym: golden
    gold sticker
    gold socks
    • 1927, F. E. Penny, chapter 4, in Pulling the Strings:
      Soon after the arrival of Mrs. Campbell, dinner was announced by Abboye. He came into the drawing room resplendent in his gold-and-white turban. […] His cummerbund matched the turban in gold lines.
    • 1963, Margery Allingham, chapter 3, in The China Governess: A Mystery, London: Chatto & Windus, →OCLC:
      Here the stripped panelling was warmly gold and the pictures, mostly of the English school, were mellow and gentle in the afternoon light.
  3. (of commercial services) Premium, superior.
  4. Of a musical recording: having sold 500,000 copies.
    Coordinate term: platinum
    • 2000, Billboard, volume 112, number 20, page 52:
      The album went gold, then platinum, thanks to a second hit single, "It's A Miracle".
  5. (academia) Subject to or involving a model of open access in which a published article is immediately available for to read for free with no embargo period.
    Coordinate term: green
Translations
The translations below need to be checked and inserted above into the appropriate translation tables. See instructions at Wiktionary:Entry layout § Translations.

Verb

gold (third-person singular simple present golds, present participle golding, simple past and past participle golded)

  1. To appear or cause to appear golden.
    Hyponym: gild
    • 2010, Tanuja Desai Hidier, Born Confused:
      I caught sight of something that seemed the nexus of all that glittered, all that golded: like a hallucination in the traffic's rotary heart, a saried creature giddily swirling her own razored rainbow roundabout, mirrored fabric sending light spinning like saberlike amidst the smoking, choking cars.
    • 2011, Harry Nicholson, Tom Fleck, page 250:
      You are the sun at Noon, that golds the barley, and pulls the bee to the ling on the moor.
    • 2011, D G Compton, A Usual Lunacy:
      Worked wonders, knowing a thing like that. Golded up your hair, even, for all your record said indeterminate. Golded up the whole world, really.
    • 2011, Robert M. Ellis, “Pokhara Lake”, in North Cape: Selected Poems of a Poet Turned Philosopher, page 21:
      But I work still, a dead, unheeding man across the endless interface: wishing I was the sun who golds the lake or the lake, comprehending sun.
    • 2021, Edward Elmer Smith, The Imperial Stars:
      Hair down to my shoulders; waved and liquid-golded. Eyebrows shaved to a different shape and golded. Handle-bar mustache, waxed to points and golded.

See also

Etymology 2

From gold master, a copy of the code certified as being ready for release.

Adjective

gold (not comparable)

  1. (programming, of software) In a finished state, ready for manufacturing.
    • 2004 November, “Half-Life 2 goes gold”, in HWM, page 10:
      The Company confirmed that Half-Life 2, developed by Valve Software, has gone gold with a planned retail street date of November 16, 2004.
    • 2011, Jordan Gray, Unearthed, page 6:
      He felt bone-tired and twitchy, the way he did in the final stages of putting a video-game project together, almost ready to go gold and turn a new game loose on the public.
    • 2011, Jessica Mulligan, Bridgette Patrovsky, quoting Damion Schubert, Developing Online Games: An Insider's Guide, page 221:
      I had coded guilds into M59 over the weekend, shortly before we were supposed to go gold.

Adverb

gold (not comparable)

  1. of or referring to a gold version of something

References

  1. ^ Bingham, Caleb (1808) “Improprieties in Pronunciation, common among the people of New-England”, in The Child's Companion; Being a Conciſe Spelling-book , 12th edition, Boston: Manning & Loring, →OCLC, page 75.

Further reading

  • David Barthelmy (1997–2024) “Gold”, in Webmineral Mineralogy Database.
  • Mindat.org, Hudson Institute of Mineralogy, 2000–2024.

Cebuano

Etymology

Borrowed from English gold, from Middle English gold, from Old English gold (gold), from Proto-Germanic *gulþą (gold), from Proto-Indo-European *ǵʰl̥tóm (gold), from Proto-Indo-European *ǵʰelh₃- (yellow; gleam; to shine).

Noun

gold

  1. gold (chemical element)
  2. a coin or coinage made of this material, or supposedly so
  3. a bright yellow color, resembling the metal gold
  4. a gold medal
  5. (fantasy roleplaying games board games) miscellaneous unit of currency in fantasy genre

Adjective

gold

  1. having the colour of gold

Quotations

For quotations using this term, see Citations:gold.

Cimbrian

Alternative forms

Etymology

From Middle High German golt, from Old High German gold, from Proto-West Germanic *golþ, from Proto-Germanic *gulþą (gold). Cognate with German Gold, English gold.

Noun

gold n

  1. (Luserna) gold (metal)

References

Danish

Etymology

Probably from or related to Old Norse geldr (barren, yielding no milk), from Proto-Germanic *galdaz, *galdijaz (barren, unfruitful), from Proto-Indo-European *gʰel- (to shout, cry).

See also Swedish gall (barren), German galt, gelt (yielding no milk, unfruitful), Old Norse gelda (to castrate).

Pronunciation

Adjective

gold

  1. barren, desolate
  2. sterile (unable to reproduce)
  3. dry, (of a cow) not producing milk
    En gold ko.
    A dry cow.

Inflection

Inflection of gold
Positive Comparative Superlative
Indefinte common singular gold goldere goldest2
Indefinite neuter singular goldt goldere goldest2
Plural golde goldere goldest2
Definite attributive1 golde goldere goldeste
1) When an adjective is applied predicatively to something definite, the corresponding "indefinite" form is used.
2) The "indefinite" superlatives may not be used attributively.

Derived terms

Dutch

Pronunciation

Verb

gold

  1. singular past indicative of gelden

Middle English

Etymology

From Old English gold (gold), from Proto-West Germanic *golþ, from Proto-Germanic *gulþą (gold), from Proto-Indo-European *ǵʰl̥tóm (gold), from Proto-Indo-European *ǵʰelh₃- (yellow; gleam; to shine).

Pronunciation

Noun

gold (plural golds)

  1. gold (metal)

Derived terms

Descendants

  • English: gold
  • Scots: gowd, goold

Norwegian Nynorsk

Pronunciation

Adjective

gold (indefinite singular gold, definite singular and plural golde, comparative goldare, indefinite superlative goldast, definite superlative goldaste)

  1. frail, barren

References

Old English

Etymology

From Proto-West Germanic *golþ, from Proto-Germanic *gulþą, from Proto-Indo-European *ǵʰĺ̥tom.

Pronunciation

Noun

gold n

  1. gold
    • late 10th century, Ælfric, "Chair of Saint Peter"
      ...Næbbe ic seolfor ne gold, ic þē dō þæt ic hæbbe...
      ...I have neither silver nor gold, I give thee that I have...

Declension

Derived terms

Descendants

Volapük

Etymology

Borrowed from English gold.

Pronunciation

Noun

gold (nominative plural golds)

  1. gold

Declension

Synonyms

Derived terms

See also

Welsh

Etymology

From English gold.

Noun

gold m (uncountable)

  1. marigold

Derived terms

Mutation

Mutated forms of gold
radical soft nasal aspirate
gold old ngold unchanged

Note: Certain mutated forms of some words can never occur in standard Welsh.
All possible mutated forms are displayed for convenience.

Further reading

  • R. J. Thomas, G. A. Bevan, P. J. Donovan, A. Hawke et al., editors (1950–present), “gold”, in Geiriadur Prifysgol Cymru Online (in Welsh), University of Wales Centre for Advanced Welsh & Celtic Studies