copper
Language: English
Part of speech: noun
Pronunciation: ipa: /qʰɔpɑ/
note: of the US
enpr: kŏp'ə
ipa: /ˈkɒp.ə/
note: of the US
note: of Canada
enpr: kä'pər
ipa: /ˈkɑ.pɚ/
note: of Canada
enpr: kŏp'ə
ipa: /ˈkɔp.ə/
ipa: /ˈkɒp.ə/
rhymes: -ɒpə(ɹ)
Forms: form: coppers
Etymology: Inherited from Middle English coper, from Old English coper, copor (“copper”), from Late Latin cuprum (“copper”), contraction of Latin aes Cyprium (literally “Cyprian brass”), from Ancient Greek Κύπρος (Kúpros, “Cyprus”). Doublet of kobo. Cognate with Dutch koper (“copper”), German Kupfer (“copper”), Icelandic kopar (“copper”).
Senses: examples: text: 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.
ref: 2025 July 17, John Towfighi, “Copper prices have surged to record highs — and they could jump higher. Here’s why”, in CNN Business:
glosses: A reddish-brown, malleable, ductile metallic element with high electrical and thermal conductivity, symbol Cu, and atomic number 29.
glosses: The reddish-brown colour / color of copper.
examples: text: Coppers are generally good for a year, if the battery is carefully attended […]
ref: 1885, General Rules and Regulations Applicable to All Employes of the Chicago and Grand Trunk Railway Company:
text: Some coppers come already tinned. I didn't buy mine, so they surely were not tinned.
ref: 1890, The Manufacturer and Builder, volume 22, page 83:
text: Coppers are not consumed, and their life depends largely on the manner in which they are used.
ref: 1907, “Instructions for the Care of Callaud Batteries”, in Journal of the Telegraph, volume XL:
glosses: 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.
examples: text: 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.
ref: 1799, Benjamin Franklin, edited by John Bigelow, The Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin, published 1868, page 255:
text: "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.[…]."
ref: 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:
glosses: 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.
A copper coin, typically of a small denomination, such as a penny.
examples: text: Mum would heat the water in a copper in the kitchen and transfer it to the tin bath.
text: I explain that socks can’t be boiled up in the copper with the sheets and towels or they shrink.
text: 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.
ref: 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:
text: '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.'
ref: 1886, Peter Christen Asbjørnsen, translated by H.L. Brækstad, Folk and Fairy Tales, page 6:
text: He rose to his knees, for he had been sitting in the darkness near the copper.
ref: 1898, H.G. Wells, The War of the Worlds, London: William Heinemann, page 230:
text: 'Vot game now she play?' he asked himself, as he distinguished his wife near one of the pig-scalding coppers.
ref: 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:
text: 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.
ref: 2000, Christopher Christie, The British Country House in the Eighteenth Century, page 266:
glosses: 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.
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.
topics: biology
entomology
natural-sciences
glosses: Any of various lycaenid butterflies with copper-coloured upperwings, especially those of the genera Lycaena and Paralucia.
Synonyms: topics: colour
color
word: chestnut
topics: colour
color
word: russet
Derived terms: 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
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: BSCCO
copperas
cupr-
cuprane
cuprate
cuprea bark
cupreous
cupric
cupriferous
cuprite
cupro-
cuproid
cuproso-
cuprous
YBCO