Silver

:This page is about silver the element. For the color, see silver (color).

History

Silver (from Anglo-Saxon seolfor, compare Old High German silabar; Ag is from the Latin argentum) has been known since ancient times. It is mentioned in the book of Genesis, and slag heaps found in Asia Minor and on the islands of the Aegean Sea indicate that silver was being separated from lead as early as the 4th millennium BC.

Related Topics:
Anglo-Saxon - Old High German - Book of Genesis - Asia Minor - Aegean Sea - Lead - 4th millennium BC

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Silver has been used for thousands of years for ornaments and utensils, for trade, and as the basis for many monetary systems. Its value as a precious metal was long considered second only to gold. In Ancient Egypt and Medieval Europe, it was often more valuable than gold.

Related Topics:
Ornament - Utensil - Trade - Monetary system - Precious metal - Gold - Ancient Egypt - Medieval Europe

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Associated with the moon, as well as with the sea and various lunar goddesses, the metal was referred to by alchemists by the name luna. One of the alchemical symbols for silver is a crescent moon with the open part on the left (see picture, right).

Related Topics:
Moon - Goddess - Alchemical - Crescent

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The metal mercury was thought of as a kind of silver, though the two elements are chemically unrelated; its Latin and English names, hydrargyrum ("watery silver") and quicksilver, respectively, reflect this history.

Related Topics:
Mercury - English

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In heraldry, the argent, in addition to being shown as silver (this has been shown at times with real silver in official representations), can also been shown as white. Occasionally, the word "silver" is used rather than argent; sometimes this is done across-the-board, sometimes to avoid repetition of the word "argent" in blazon.

Related Topics:
Heraldry - Argent

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Europeans found a huge amount of silver in the New World in Zacatecas and Potosí, which triggered a period of inflation in Europe. The conquistador Pizarro was said to have resorted to having his horses shod with silver horseshoes due to the metal's abundance, in contrast to the relative lack of iron in Peru.

Related Topics:
New World - Zacatecas - Potosí - Pizarro - Peru

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The Rio de la Plata was named after silver (in Spanish, plata), and in turn lent the meaning of its name to Argentina.

Related Topics:
Rio de la Plata - Spanish - Argentina

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