orichalcum

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English

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Etymology

Learned borrowing from Latin orichalcum, itself a borrowing from Ancient Greek ὀρείχαλκος (oreíkhalkos), from dative singular of ὄρος (óros, mountain) + χαλκός (khalkós, copper).

Pronunciation

Noun

orichalcum (uncountable)

  1. A valuable yellow metal known to the Ancient Greeks and Romans; now sometimes interpreted as referring to a natural alloy of gold and copper, and sometimes treated as a mythical substance.
    • 2008, Jonathan Black, A Secret History of the World, Quercus, published 2008, page 162:
      Many walls were coated with metals – with brass, tin and a red metal, unknown to us, called orichalcum.

Alternative forms

Latin

Alternative forms

Etymology

Borrowed from Ancient Greek ὀρείχαλκος (oreíkhalkos).

Pronunciation

Noun

orichalcum n (genitive orichalcī); second declension

  1. yellow copper ore, or an alloy of gold and copper
    • 29 BCE – 19 BCE, Virgil, Aeneid 12.87, (dactylic hexameter):
      Ipse dehinc auro squalentem alboque orichalco ./ circumdat loricam umeris, simul aptat habendo
      • 1910 translation by Theodore C. Williams
        But he upon his kingly shoulders clasped his corselet, thick o'erlaid with blazoned gold and silvery orichalch
    • c. 19 BCE, Horace, Ars Poetica 202, (dactylic hexameter):
      Tibia non ut nunc orichalco vincta tubaeque.
  2. a mythical mineral
  3. (Late Latin, Medieval Latin, poetic) brass (or brass objects)

Declension

Second-declension noun (neuter), singular only.

singular
nominative orichalcum
genitive orichalcī
dative orichalcō
accusative orichalcum
ablative orichalcō
vocative orichalcum

Derived terms

Descendants

  • English: orichalcum
  • French: orichalque
  • Italian: oricalco

Adjective

orichalcum

  1. inflection of orichalcus:
    1. nominative/accusative/vocative neuter singular
    2. accusative masculine singular

References

  • orichalcum”, in Charlton T. Lewis and Charles Short (1879) A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
  • orichalcum”, in Charlton T. Lewis (1891) An Elementary Latin Dictionary, New York: Harper & Brothers
  • orichalcum in Gaffiot, Félix (1934) Dictionnaire illustré latin-français, Hachette.
  • orichalcum”, in Harry Thurston Peck, editor (1898), Harper's Dictionary of Classical Antiquities, New York: Harper & Brothers
  • orichalcum”, in William Smith et al., editor (1890), A Dictionary of Greek and Roman Antiquities, London: William Wayte. G. E. Marindin