[edit]English Wikipedia has an article on:copperWikipedia
Chemical element
Cu
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Copper in its natural state.
Pronunciation
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(MLE) IPA(key): /qʰɔpɑ/
(Received Pronunciation, Canada, dialects of the US) enPR: kŏp'ə, IPA(key): /ˈkɒp.ə/
(General American, Canada, dialects of Canada) enPR: kä'pər, IPA(key): /ˈkɑ.pɚ/
Audio (General American):
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Audio (California):
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(General Australian, New Zealand) enPR: kŏp'ə, IPA(key): /ˈkɔp.ə/, /ˈkɒp.ə/
Audio (Queensland):
(file)
Rhymes: -ɒpə(ɹ)
Etymology 1
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Inherited from Middle Englishcoper, from Old Englishcoper, copor(“copper”), from Late Latincuprum(“copper”), contraction of Latinaes Cyprium(literally “Cyprian brass”), from Ancient GreekΚύπρος(Kúpros, “Cyprus”). Doublet of kobo. Cognate with Dutchkoper(“copper”), GermanKupfer(“copper”), Icelandickopar(“copper”).
Noun
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copper (countable and uncountable, plural coppers)
(uncountable) A reddish-brown metal, symbol Cu, and atomic number 29.
2025 July 17, John Towfighi, “Copper prices have surged to record highs — and they could jump higher. Here’s why”, in CNN Business[1]:Trump’s July 8 announcement of a 50% tariff on copper imports beginning August 1 sent prices surging 13% in one day, up to a record high of $5.69 per pound.
The reddish-brown colour / color of copper. copper:
(countable, dated) Any of various specialized items that are made of copper, where the use of copper is either traditional or vital to the function of the item.
1885, General Rules and Regulations Applicable to All Employes of the Chicago and Grand Trunk Railway Company:Coppers are generally good for a year, if the battery is carefully attended […]
1890, The Manufacturer and Builder, volume 22, page 83:Some coppers come already tinned. I didn't buy mine, so they surely were not tinned.
1907, “Instructions for the Care of Callaud Batteries”, in Journal of the Telegraph, volume XL:Coppers are not consumed, and their life depends largely on the manner in which they are used.
(countable) A copper coin, typically of a small denomination, such as a penny.
1799, Benjamin Franklin, edited by John Bigelow, The Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin, published 1868, page 255:I had in my pocket a handful of copper money, three or four silver dollars, and five pistoles in gold. As he proceeded I began to soften, and concluded to give the coppers.
1909, Archibald Marshall [pseudonym; Arthur Hammond Marshall], chapter II, in The Squire’s Daughter, New York, N.Y.: Dodd, Mead and Company, published 1919, →OCLC:"I don't want to spoil any comparison you are going to make," said Jim, "but I was at Winchester and New College." ¶ "That will do," said Mackenzie. "I was dragged up at the workhouse school till I was twelve. Then I ran away and sold papers in the streets, and anything else that I could pick up a few coppers by—except steal.[…]."
(UK, Australia, dated) A large pot, often used for heating water or washing clothes over a fire. In Australasia at least, it could also be a fixed installation made of copper, with a fire underneath and its own chimney. Generally made redundant by the advent of the washing machine. Mum would heat the water in a copper in the kitchen and transfer it to the tin bath.I explain that socks can’t be boiled up in the copper with the sheets and towels or they shrink.
1797, “Dyeing”, in Colin Macfarquhar, George Gleig, editors, Encyclopædia Britannica: or, A Dictionary of Arts, Sciences, and Miscellaneous Literature, Volume 6, Part 1 p.207:When the water in the copper boils, the arsenic and tartar, well pounded, is put into it, and kept boiling till the liquor is reduced to about half.
1886, Peter Christen Asbjørnsen, translated by H.L. Brækstad, Folk and Fairy Tales, page 6:'You had better mind you don't get up too early, and you mustn't put any fire under the copper before two o'clock.'
1898, H.G. Wells, The War of the Worlds, London: William Heinemann, page 230:He rose to his knees, for he had been sitting in the darkness near the copper.
1907, Barbara Baynton, edited by Sally Krimmer and Alan Lawson, Human Toll (Portable Australian Authors: Barbara Baynton), St Lucia: University of Queensland Press, published 1980, page 254:'Vot game now she play?' he asked himself, as he distinguished his wife near one of the pig-scalding coppers.
2000, Christopher Christie, The British Country House in the Eighteenth Century, page 266:The wet laundry's stove had a long vent in the ceiling which helped to release the steam from the coppers in which the clothes and bed linen were boiled.
(entomology) Any of various lycaenid butterflies with copper-coloured upperwings, especially those of the genera Lycaena and Paralucia.
Synonyms
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(colour):chestnut, russet
Derived terms
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antimonial copper
arsenical copper
Austrian copper
Austrian copper rose
barium copper disilicate
barium copper oxide
barium copper silicate
barium copper tetrasilicate
bismuth strontium calcium copper oxide
black copper
black copper ore
blanched copper
blister copper
blistered copper
blue copper
Bungtown copper
calcium copper tetrasilicate
cement copper
Chessy copper
chromated copper arsenate
clear one's coppers
cool one's coppers
copper acetate
copper age
copper arsenate
copper arsenide
copper-arsenide
copper-arsenite
copper arsenite
copper aspirinate
copperbar
copper barilla
copper beech
copper-beech
copper-bellied snake
copperbelly
copper-belly
copperbelt
Copperbelt
copper belt
copper-bit
copper-blende
copper-bloom
copper-bottom
copper-bottomed
copper-bound
copper-butterfly
copper-cap
copper-captain
copper captain
copper carbonate
copper chloride
copper chopper
copper-colic
copper-cut
copper dichloride
coppered
copper-emerald
copperer
Copper Eskimo
copper-faced
copper fasten
copperfasten
copper-fasten
copper-fastened
Copperfield
copper finch
copper-finch
copper-foil
copper-glance
copper globemallow
copper-green
copper group
copper-head
copperhead
copper-headed
copper-hells
copper-hops
copper-Indian
coppering
copper iris
copper-iron
copperise
copperish
copperize
copper-knob
copperleaf
copperless
copper loss
copper-man
copper-manganese
copper-mica
copper moki
coppern
copper-nickel
copper nitrate
coppernob
copper-nose
copper nose
Copperopolis
copper ore
copperous
copper oxide
copper phosphide
copper phthalocyanine
copper-place
copperplate
copper-powder
copper pyrites
copper-rain
copper schist
copper shark
copperskin
copper-skinned
copper-slate
coppersmith
coppersmithing
coppersmithy
copper-smoke
copper-snake
copper-spot
copper sulfate
copper sulfide
copper sulphate
copper sulphide
copper-top
coppertop
copper-topped
copper transport disease
copper uranite
copper-vitriol
copperware
copper-wing
copperwork
copper-work
copperwork
copperworker
copperworking
copperworks
copper-works
copperworm
coppery
cozzer
decacopper
dicopper
disulfide of copper
disulphide of copper
dry copper
electrocopper
emerald copper
emerald copper ore
enamelers' copper
enamellers' copper
gold-copper ore
great copper
grey copper
grey copper ore
heptacopper
hexaaquacopper
holler copper
hot coppers
indigo copper
japan copper
large copper
manganese copper
multicopper
noncopper
octacopper
octadecacopper
octahedral copper
octahedral copper ore
organocopper
peacock copper
pentacopper
pentadecacopper
phosphor copper
purple copper
purple copper ore
pyritous copper
radiocopper
recopper
red copper
scarce copper
silicon copper
silver-copper nitrate
small copper
sulfate of copper
sulphate of copper
tetracopper
tetradecacopper
tin-silver-copper
tricopper
tridecacopper
variegated copper
variegated copper ore
velvet copper
velvet copper ore
white copper
wood-copper
yellow copper
yellow copper ore
Related terms
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BSCCO
copperas
cupr-
cuprane
cuprate
cuprea bark
cupreous
cupric
cupriferous
cuprite
cupro-
cuproid
cuproso-
cuprous
YBCO
Descendants
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Sranan Tongo: kapa
Translations
[edit] chemical element
Abkhaz: абҩа(abjʷa)
Acehnese: teumaga
Afar: naxas
Afrikaans: koper (af)
Ainu: フレカネ(hurekane)
Albanian: bakër (sq)m, rem (sq)m, qipërf
Amharic: መዳብ(mädab), ነሕስ(näḥs)
Arabic: نُحَاس (ar)m(nuḥās) Moroccan Arabic: نحاس(nḥās) South Levantine Arabic: نحاس(nḥās)
copper (comparative more copper, superlative most copper)
Made of copper.
Having the reddish-brown colour/color of copper.
1797–1798 (date written), [Samuel Taylor Coleridge], “The Rime of the Ancyent Marinere”, in Lyrical Ballads, with a Few Other Poems, London: […] J[ohn] & A[rthur] Arch,[…], published 1798, →OCLC:All in a hot and copper sky, / The bloody Sun, at noon, / Right up above the mast did stand, / No bigger than the Moon.
1999, Maria M. Gillan, Things My Mother Told Me, page 38:She seemed so alive, with her shining eyes and her copper hair and her jokes and funny stories, but there was always a mystery at the center of her life, the sound of wild sobbing my mother said she heard coming through the floor.
copper (third-person singular simple present coppers, present participle coppering, simple past and past participle coppered)
To sheathe or coat with copper.
Translations
[edit] sheathe or coat in copper
Bulgarian: please add this translation if you can
Greek: Ancient: περιχαλκόω(perikhalkóō)
See also
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anna
azurite
bell metal
bluestone
blue vitriol
Bordeaux mixture
bornite
brass
bronze
chalcanthite
chalcid
chalcocite
chalcopyrite
chalcosis
chessylite
chrysocolla
covellite
ferrous sulphate
kipper
lentigohepatic degeneration
malachite
Monel
olivenite
ormolu
patina
peacock ore
soldo
speculum metal
tombac
verd antique
verdigris
widow's mite
Wilson's disease
Appendix:Colors
Etymology 2
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From cop(“to take, capture, seize”) + -er(agent noun suffix).
Noun
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copper (plural coppers)
(slang, law enforcement) A police officer. Synonyms:police officer, constable, cop; see also Thesaurus:police officer
1985, Shane MacGowan, “The Old Main Drag”, in Rum Sodomy & the Lash, performed by The Pogues:One evening as I was lying down in Leicester Square / I was picked up by the coppers and kicked in the balls
