Goldsmith

How to spell goldsmith

9 letters · 2 syllables

How to pronounce goldsmith

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does goldsmith mean?

1. nounA craftsman who makes objects and jewellery from gold and other precious metals.

Goldsmith in a sentence

• The goldsmith resized the ring while she waited at the counter.

• A skilled goldsmith can melt down old jewellery and recast it into something new.

Where does goldsmith come from?

Language of origin: Germanic

This word is a straightforward native English compound, joining two very old Germanic elements that have changed little over a thousand years. The first part, 'gold', descends from Old English 'gold', a word for the precious yellow metal that runs throughout the Germanic languages. The second part, 'smith', comes from Old English 'smith', meaning a craftsman who works metal by striking it, the same root that gives us 'blacksmith' and the common surname Smith. Old English already used the compound 'goldsmith' to name an artisan who fashions objects from gold, and it has carried that exact trade meaning ever since. Because both halves are ordinary modern words spelled just as they sound, the only thing to remember is that they fuse into a single word with no space or hyphen between them.

How the word is built

• gold (the metal)
• smith (one who works metal)