cuprum

Latin

Chemical element (edit)
Cu Atomic number 29 cuprum
Classification data Period 4 Group 11 Block d-block Class transition metal
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Latin Wikipedia article on Cuprum

Alternative forms

• cyprum

Etymology

From cyprium (“copper”), elliptical for aes Cyprium, Cyprium aes (literally “Cypriote copper”), after the large reserves of the metal found on the island of Cyprus.

Pronunciation

• (Classical Latin) IPA^(key): [ˈkʊ.prũː]
• (modern Italianate Ecclesiastical) IPA^(key): [ˈkuː.prum]

Noun

cuprum n (genitive cuprī); second declension

1. (Late Latin) copper (the metal)

Declension

Second-declension noun (neuter), singular only.

	singular
nominative	cuprum
genitive	cuprī
dative	cuprō
accusative	cuprum
ablative	cuprō
vocative	cuprum

Synonyms

• aerāmen

Derived terms

• cupreus

Descendants

• Italo-Romance:
  • Old Italian: covro, covero
• Gallo-Italic:
  • Old Emilian: covro
  • Old Ligurian: covro, covaro
• Gallo-Romance:
  • Old Catalan: coyre
    • Catalan: coure
• Ibero-Romance:
  • Aragonese: cobre
  • Asturian: cobre
  • Old Galician-Portuguese: cobre
    • Galician: cobre
    • Portuguese: cobre
  • Spanish: cobre
    • → Basque: kobre

Borrowings:

• → Esperanto: kupro
  • → Ido: kupro
• → Interlingua: cupro, ⇒ cupric
• → Malay: kuprum
• → Proto-West Germanic: *kopr (see there for further descendants)
• → Romanian: cupru
• → Volapük: kuprin
• ⇒ Catalan: cupro-, cúpric
• ⇒ English: cupro-, cupric
• ⇒ Italian: cupro-, cuprico
• ⇒ French: cupro-, cuprique
  • → Romanian: cupric
• ⇒ Portuguese: cupro-, cúprico
• ⇒ Spanish: cupro-, cúprico

References

• “cuprum”, in Charlton T. Lewis and Charles Short (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
• "cuprum", in Charles du Fresne du Cange, Glossarium Mediæ et Infimæ Latinitatis (augmented edition with additions by D. P. Carpenterius, Adelungius and others, edited by Léopold Favre, 1883–1887)
• “cuprum”, in Gaffiot, Félix (1934), Dictionnaire illustré latin-français, Hachette.