"Kupfernickel" meaning in German

See Kupfernickel in All languages combined, or Wiktionary

Noun

Forms: Kupfernickels [genitive], neuter strong [table-tags], Kupfernickel [nominative, singular], Kupfernickels [genitive, singular], Kupfernickel [dative, singular], Kupfernickel [accusative, singular]
Etymology: From Kupfer (“copper”) + Nickel (“mischievious spirit or demon”). This word originated as a pejorative German term for ores of the element nickel, whose bright green color closely resembles malachite, an otherwise reliable indicator of valuable copper ore. However, like iron, nickel ore is impossible to smelt at the relatively low temperatures needed to smelt copper. (This is also why the Copper Age preceded the Iron Age.) Annoyed at wasting their time on such ore, German miners began calling it cupfernickel, that is, "copper demon." When chemists eventually identified and named the element in the ore, they shortened the name of the ore to nickel. The name of this element thus has the same roots as the phrase "Old Nick," which refers to a supreme devil or demon. Feeling a bit whimsical, chemists of that same period named another newly isolated iron-like element, cobalt, after a mischievous German household spirit, the "kobold." Etymology templates: {{compound|de|Kupfer|Nickel|t1=copper|t2=mischievious spirit or demon}} Kupfer (“copper”) + Nickel (“mischievious spirit or demon”) Head templates: {{de-noun|n.sg}} Kupfernickel n (strong, genitive Kupfernickels, no plural) Inflection templates: {{de-ndecl|n.sg}}
  1. cupronickel Tags: neuter, no-plural, strong
    Sense id: en-Kupfernickel-de-noun-Z8iTraVE Categories (other): German entries with incorrect language header

Inflected forms

Download JSON data for Kupfernickel meaning in German (2.3kB)

{
  "etymology_templates": [
    {
      "args": {
        "1": "de",
        "2": "Kupfer",
        "3": "Nickel",
        "t1": "copper",
        "t2": "mischievious spirit or demon"
      },
      "expansion": "Kupfer (“copper”) + Nickel (“mischievious spirit or demon”)",
      "name": "compound"
    }
  ],
  "etymology_text": "From Kupfer (“copper”) + Nickel (“mischievious spirit or demon”). This word originated as a pejorative German term for ores of the element nickel, whose bright green color closely resembles malachite, an otherwise reliable indicator of valuable copper ore. However, like iron, nickel ore is impossible to smelt at the relatively low temperatures needed to smelt copper. (This is also why the Copper Age preceded the Iron Age.) Annoyed at wasting their time on such ore, German miners began calling it cupfernickel, that is, \"copper demon.\" When chemists eventually identified and named the element in the ore, they shortened the name of the ore to nickel. The name of this element thus has the same roots as the phrase \"Old Nick,\" which refers to a supreme devil or demon. Feeling a bit whimsical, chemists of that same period named another newly isolated iron-like element, cobalt, after a mischievous German household spirit, the \"kobold.\"",
  "forms": [
    {
      "form": "Kupfernickels",
      "tags": [
        "genitive"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "neuter strong",
      "source": "declension",
      "tags": [
        "table-tags"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "de-ndecl",
      "source": "declension",
      "tags": [
        "inflection-template"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "Kupfernickel",
      "source": "declension",
      "tags": [
        "nominative",
        "singular"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "Kupfernickels",
      "source": "declension",
      "tags": [
        "genitive",
        "singular"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "Kupfernickel",
      "source": "declension",
      "tags": [
        "dative",
        "singular"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "Kupfernickel",
      "source": "declension",
      "tags": [
        "accusative",
        "singular"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "head_templates": [
    {
      "args": {
        "1": "n.sg"
      },
      "expansion": "Kupfernickel n (strong, genitive Kupfernickels, no plural)",
      "name": "de-noun"
    }
  ],
  "inflection_templates": [
    {
      "args": {
        "1": "n.sg"
      },
      "name": "de-ndecl"
    }
  ],
  "lang": "German",
  "lang_code": "de",
  "pos": "noun",
  "senses": [
    {
      "categories": [
        {
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "German entries with incorrect language header",
          "parents": [
            "Entries with incorrect language header",
            "Entry maintenance"
          ],
          "source": "w"
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "cupronickel"
      ],
      "id": "en-Kupfernickel-de-noun-Z8iTraVE",
      "links": [
        [
          "cupronickel",
          "cupronickel"
        ]
      ],
      "tags": [
        "neuter",
        "no-plural",
        "strong"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "word": "Kupfernickel"
}
{
  "etymology_templates": [
    {
      "args": {
        "1": "de",
        "2": "Kupfer",
        "3": "Nickel",
        "t1": "copper",
        "t2": "mischievious spirit or demon"
      },
      "expansion": "Kupfer (“copper”) + Nickel (“mischievious spirit or demon”)",
      "name": "compound"
    }
  ],
  "etymology_text": "From Kupfer (“copper”) + Nickel (“mischievious spirit or demon”). This word originated as a pejorative German term for ores of the element nickel, whose bright green color closely resembles malachite, an otherwise reliable indicator of valuable copper ore. However, like iron, nickel ore is impossible to smelt at the relatively low temperatures needed to smelt copper. (This is also why the Copper Age preceded the Iron Age.) Annoyed at wasting their time on such ore, German miners began calling it cupfernickel, that is, \"copper demon.\" When chemists eventually identified and named the element in the ore, they shortened the name of the ore to nickel. The name of this element thus has the same roots as the phrase \"Old Nick,\" which refers to a supreme devil or demon. Feeling a bit whimsical, chemists of that same period named another newly isolated iron-like element, cobalt, after a mischievous German household spirit, the \"kobold.\"",
  "forms": [
    {
      "form": "Kupfernickels",
      "tags": [
        "genitive"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "neuter strong",
      "source": "declension",
      "tags": [
        "table-tags"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "de-ndecl",
      "source": "declension",
      "tags": [
        "inflection-template"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "Kupfernickel",
      "source": "declension",
      "tags": [
        "nominative",
        "singular"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "Kupfernickels",
      "source": "declension",
      "tags": [
        "genitive",
        "singular"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "Kupfernickel",
      "source": "declension",
      "tags": [
        "dative",
        "singular"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "Kupfernickel",
      "source": "declension",
      "tags": [
        "accusative",
        "singular"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "head_templates": [
    {
      "args": {
        "1": "n.sg"
      },
      "expansion": "Kupfernickel n (strong, genitive Kupfernickels, no plural)",
      "name": "de-noun"
    }
  ],
  "inflection_templates": [
    {
      "args": {
        "1": "n.sg"
      },
      "name": "de-ndecl"
    }
  ],
  "lang": "German",
  "lang_code": "de",
  "pos": "noun",
  "senses": [
    {
      "categories": [
        "German compound terms",
        "German entries with incorrect language header",
        "German lemmas",
        "German neuter nouns",
        "German nouns",
        "German uncountable nouns"
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "cupronickel"
      ],
      "links": [
        [
          "cupronickel",
          "cupronickel"
        ]
      ],
      "tags": [
        "neuter",
        "no-plural",
        "strong"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "word": "Kupfernickel"
}

This page is a part of the kaikki.org machine-readable German dictionary. This dictionary is based on structured data extracted on 2024-05-20 from the enwiktionary dump dated 2024-05-02 using wiktextract (1d5a7d1 and 304864d). The data shown on this site has been post-processed and various details (e.g., extra categories) removed, some information disambiguated, and additional data merged from other sources. See the raw data download page for the unprocessed wiktextract data.

If you use this data in academic research, please cite Tatu Ylonen: Wiktextract: Wiktionary as Machine-Readable Structured Data, Proceedings of the 13th Conference on Language Resources and Evaluation (LREC), pp. 1317-1325, Marseille, 20-25 June 2022. Linking to the relevant page(s) under https://kaikki.org would also be greatly appreciated.