Copper

How to spell copper

6 letters · 2 syllables

How to pronounce copper

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does copper mean?

1. nounA reddish-brown metallic element widely used in wiring, plumbing, and coins.
2. nounAn informal British term for a police officer.

Copper in a sentence

• The old house still has copper pipes behind the walls.

• A uniformed copper took down his statement at the scene.

• Electricians prize copper for its excellent conductivity.

• The old detective had been a copper on these streets for thirty years.

Where does copper come from?

Language of origin: Latin

Copper comes from the Latin cuprum, a shortened form of the phrase aes Cyprium, which meant 'metal of Cyprus', because the Romans drew much of their copper supply from the island of Cyprus. The earlier Latin word for the metal was simply aes, but as Cypriot mines became the dominant source, the place name attached itself to the metal itself. The Latin cuprum passed into the Germanic languages and gave Old English coper, which later settled into the modern spelling with a doubled p. The same root explains the chemical symbol Cu and words like 'cupreous'. The doubled p in the middle is the small spelling trap, since the word is pronounced as a single brisk syllable followed by an unstressed ending.

How the word is built

• copper (from Latin cuprum, metal of Cyprus); a single-morpheme noun in modern English