heavy metal

English

Etymology

The origin of the music genre sense is often disputed; it was used by William S. Burroughs in Soft Machine and Nova Express and various music critics claim to have coined it: Sandy Pearlman, Lester Bangs and Mike Saunders.

Noun

heavy metal (countable and uncountable, plural heavy metals)

(sciences, countable) Any metal that has a specific gravity greater than about 5, especially one, such as lead, that is poisonous and may be a hazard in the environment. (There are many different definitions of what counts as a heavy metal; see Heavy metals for a discussion.)
(music, uncountable) A genre descended from rock music, characterized by massive sound, highly amplified distortion, and overall loudness, often with extended guitar solos, and lyrics that involve aggressive or fantastic imagery.
(uncountable) guns or shot of large size.
(uncountable, figurative) Great influence or power.

Derived terms

heavy metal umlaut

Translations

type of metal

Catalan: metall pesant m
Chinese:
Mandarin: 重金屬／重金属 (zh) (zhòngjīnshǔ)
Danish: tungmetal n
Esperanto: pezmetalo
Finnish: raskasmetalli (fi)
French: métal lourd (fr) m
Galician: metal pesado m
German: Schwermetall (de) n
Greenlandic: aatsitassaq oqimaatsoq
Hungarian: nehézfém (hu)
Japanese: 重金属 (じゅうきんぞく, jūkinzoku)
Khmer: លោហធាតុធ្ងន់ (loohthiətotngŭən)
Korean: 중금속(重金屬) (ko) (junggeumsok)
Malay: logam berat
Norwegian:
Bokmål: tungmetall n

Nynorsk: tungmetall n
Portuguese: metal pesado m
Romanian: metal greu n
Russian: тяжёлый мета́лл m (tjažólyj metáll)
Scots: hivy metal, heivy metal
Spanish: metal pesado m
Swedish: tungmetall (sv) c
Thai: โลหะหนัก (th)
Turkish: ağır metal (tr)

genre of music

Arabic: مُوسِيقَى الْمِيتَال f (mūsīqā l-mītāl), هيفي ميتال m (hīfī mītāl)
Belarusian: хэ́ві-мэ́тал m (xévi-métal)
Bulgarian: хе́ви ме́тъл m (hévi métǎl)
Chinese:
Mandarin: 重金屬音樂／重金属音乐 (zhòngjīnshǔ yīnyuè)
Dutch: heavy metal (nl) m
Esperanto: metalroko
Finnish: heavy metal (fi), hevi (fi)
French: heavy metal (fr) m
Galician: heavy metal (gl), metal (gl) m
Georgian: მძიმე მეტალი (mʒime meṭali)
German: Heavy Metal (de) m, Metal (de) m
Hebrew: הבי מטאל
Hungarian: heavy metal (hu)
Italian: heavy metal (it) m
Japanese: ヘヴィメタル (hevimetaru), ヘビーメタル (hebīmetaru), ヘビメタ (hebimeta), メタル (metaru)
Korean: 헤비 메탈 (hebi metal)
Marathi: हेव्ही मेटल n (hevhī meṭal)
Persian:
Iranian Persian: هِوی مِتال (hevi metâl)
Polish: heavy metal (pl) m
Portuguese: heavy metal (pt) m, metal (pt) m
Russian: хе́ви-ме́тал (ru) m (xɛ́vi-mɛ́tal), (музыка) мета́лл (ru) m (metáll)
Scots: heavy metal, hivy metal, heivy metal
Spanish: rock pesado m, heavy metal m
Swedish: heavy metal (sv) c, hårdrock (sv) c
Thai: เฮฟวีเมทัล
Ukrainian: хе́ві-ме́тал m (xévi-métal)

References

^ Sandy Pearlman (1968) “Review of the Byrds song “Artificial Energy””, in Crawdaddy
^ Mike Saunders (1970 November 12) “Review of Humble Pie's As Safe As Yesterday Is”, in Rolling Stone
^ William Phillips, Brian Cogan (2009) Encyclopedia of Heavy Metal Music, ABC-CLIO, →ISBN, page 3

Dutch

Dutch Wikipedia has an article on:

heavy metal

Wikipedia ^nl

Etymology

Borrowed from English heavy metal.

Pronunciation

IPA^(key): /ˌɦɛ.vi ˈmɛ.təl/
Audio (file)
Hyphenation: hea‧vy me‧tal

Noun

heavy metal m (uncountable)

(music) heavy metal

Italian

Italian Wikipedia has an article on:

heavy metal

Wikipedia ^it

Polish

Polish Wikipedia has an article on:

heavy metal

Wikipedia ^pl

Etymology

Unadapted borrowing from English heavy metal.

Pronunciation

IPA^(key): /ˈxɛ.vi ˈmɛ.tal/
Audio (file)
Rhymes: -ɛtal

Noun

heavy metal m inan (related adjective heavymetalowy)

heavy metal (style of music)

Declension

Declension of heavy metal

	singular
nominative	heavy metal
genitive	heavy metalu
dative	heavy metalowi
accusative	heavy metal
instrumental	heavy metalem
locative	heavy metalu
vocative	heavy metalu

Derived terms

noun

heavymetalowiec

Related terms

adverb

heavymetalowo

Portuguese

Etymology

Unadapted borrowing from English heavy metal.

Pronunciation

(Brazil) IPA^(key): /ˈʁɛ.vi ˈmɛ.taw/
- (Rio de Janeiro) IPA^(key): /ˈʁɛ.vi ˈmɛ.taw/

(Portugal) IPA^(key): /ˈɛ.vi ˈmɛ.tɐl/
- (Northern Portugal) IPA^(key): /ˈɛ.bi ˈmɛ.tɐl/

Noun

heavy metal m (uncountable)

(music) heavy metal (genre of rock music)
Synonyms: metal, (Brazil, dated) rock pauleira

Related terms

metaleiro

Romanian

Etymology

Unadapted borrowing from English heavy metal.

Noun

heavy metal n (uncountable)

heavy metal

Declension

declension of heavy metal (singular only)

	singular
n gender	indefinite articulation	definite articulation
nominative/accusative	(un) heavy metal	heavy metalul
genitive/dative	(unui) heavy metal	heavy metalului
vocative	heavy metalule

Spanish

Etymology

Unadapted borrowing from English heavy metal.

Pronunciation

IPA^(key): /ˌxebi meˈtal/

Noun

heavy metal m (uncountable)

heavy metal (genre of music)
Synonym: rock pesado

Usage notes

According to Royal Spanish Academy (RAE) prescriptions, unadapted foreign words should be written in italics in a text printed in roman type, and vice versa, and in quotation marks in a manuscript text or when italics are not available. In practice, this RAE prescription is not always followed.

Swedish

Swedish Wikipedia has an article on:

heavy metal

Wikipedia ^sv

Etymology

Unadapted borrowing from English heavy metal.

Noun

heavy metal c

(music) heavy metal
Synonym: hårdrock

References

[1] Sandy Pearlman (1968) “Review of the Byrds song “Artificial Energy””, in Crawdaddy

[2] Mike Saunders (1970 November 12) “Review of Humble Pie's As Safe As Yesterday Is”, in Rolling Stone

[3] William Phillips, Brian Cogan (2009) Encyclopedia of Heavy Metal Music, ABC-CLIO, →ISBN, page 3

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