Cupronickels

Part of speech: noun

Definitions

1. A type of metal alloy primarily composed of copper and nickel used in various coinage and mintage applications
2. An alloy typically made of copper and nickel, utilized in the production of currency and industrial items
3. A metallic compound consisting mainly of copper and nickel often found in coins and marine applications

Etymology: "Cupronickels" is the plural of "cupronickel", a metal alloy of copper and nickel used in coins and in marine fittings. The plural simply counts separate batches or kinds of the alloy, which is how it is usually used in trade and manufacturing. The noun is built from "cupro-", from Latin "cuprum" meaning copper, joined to "nickel". The second half carries its own story: "nickel" comes from German "Kupfernickel", a term miners used for a reddish ore that yielded copper but no copper they could recover, so it was blamed on a mischievous goblin of German folklore, "Nickel", and the name was given to the metal later isolated from it. "Cupronickel" is a calque of that German word, so English has copied the German compound piece by piece, copper element and nickel element alike.

Synonyms: cupronickel alloys, nickel copper alloys