Observations on old Serbian terminology for iron mining and processing: Zelězo and gvozdje
Authors: Loma Aleksandar 
Published: January 2025

In the Serbo-Croatian dialects the Common Slavic word for ?iron? *zel?zo
occupies a peripheral position, whereas in the central Stokavian area it was
supplanted by gvozdje > gvozdje. In Old Serbian literature zel?zo occurs
mainly in the Slavonic texts translated from Greek, where it renders such
notions as ?point of a spear?, or in the plural form zel?za ?fetters?. Its
only mention in a text written in Old Serbian spoken language is found in
Dusan?s Code; the article in question deals with the ordeal of red-hot iron
and has a close phraseological match in the Russian Justice manuscript,
which suggests that its wording goes back to an oral formula of Slavic
customary law. Otherwise, since at least the 14th century, zel?zo has been
an archaism surviving in the toponymy across the major part of Serbian
lands. Some toponymic instances, however, are assumed to have been imported
from other Slavic lands, such as Zeleznik, a medieval mine near Belgrade,
attested since 1358; it may be interpreted as having arisen through
univerbation from a descriptive denomination *zel?z?n?j? potok? ?iron
stream?, but also from a possessive noun phrase *potok? zel?znik?
?ironsmiths? stream?, i.e., the one by which their hammer mills were
situated, where the second element is the old genitive plural of *zel?znik?
?ironsmith?, which is homophonous with its nominative singular form. The
word zelezn?k in this sense, apparently calqued on Middle High German
?sensmit, is attested in Old Czech, wherefrom it appears to have spread to
Slovenia (place name Zelezniki) and perhaps also to the medieval Serbia,
where the development of mining can be traced back to the mid-thirteenth
century owing to the German settlers (OSerb Sasi, ?Saxons?); presumably a
part of them originated from the Czech lands; at least their first
settlement on the Serbian soil, Brskovo, seems to have been named after
Brzkov in the mining district around Jihlava (Iglau), on the historical
border between Bohemia and Moravia. The newcomers spoke Middle High German,
but probably not without some Slavic admixtures based on the bilingualism
that had taken hold in their native country. In the medieval Serbia,
ironsmiths used to be designated simply as ?smiths?, kovacje, and the
designation of both dug and wrought iron was gvozdje, with the adjective
gvozd?n. Etymologically, OSerb gvozdje n. ?iron? is the Common Slavic word
*gvozd?, *gvozd?j? ?nail, peg?, whose plural *gvozd?je was reshaped into a
secondary collective in *-?je, with a semantic switch usually explained by
the development ?wooden nails? > ?iron nails? > ?iron?. However, the mention
of gvozdje in the Mining Code issued in 1412 by Serbian Despot Stefan
Lazarevic points in another direction. The word refers there to what is in
German Bergeisen ?miner?s picks? or, more precisely, ?wedges?, i.e., their
wedge-shaped iron heads. In the same meaning the shortened form Eisen, MHG
?sen is used, which basically means ?iron?. In all likelihood, this double
meaning of ?sen in the technical terminology of German miners triggered the
semantic change of OSerb gvozdje from ?nails, wedges? to ?iron?.