orichalcum
UK/ɒɹɪˈkælkəm/
orichalcum noun: a valuable yellow metal known to the Ancient Greeks and Romans; now sometimes interpreted as referring to a natural alloy of gold and copper, and sometimes treated as a mythical substance.
Noun
orichalcum (uncountable)
- A valuable yellow metal known to the Ancient Greeks and Romans; now sometimes interpreted as referring to a natural alloy of gold and copper, and sometimes treated as a mythical substance.
- Many walls were coated with metals – with brass, tin and a red ^([sic]) metal, unknown to us, called orichalcum.2008, Jonathan Black, A Secret History of the World, Quercus, published 2008, page 162
Forms of orichalcum
| alternative form | aurichalchum |
|---|---|
| alternative form | aurichalcum |
| alternative form | orichalc |
| alternative form | orichalch |
| alternative form | orichalchum |
Origin of orichalcum
Learned borrowing from Latin orichalcum, itself a borrowing from Ancient Greek ὀρείχαλκος (oreíkhalkos), from dative singular of ὄρος (óros, “mountain”) + χαλκός (khalkós, “copper”).
Questions about orichalcum
- What does orichalcum mean?
- Orichalcum means a valuable yellow metal known to the Ancient Greeks and Romans; now sometimes interpreted as referring to a natural alloy of gold and copper, and sometimes treated as a mythical substance.
- What part of speech is orichalcum?
- Orichalcum is a noun.
- How do you pronounce orichalcum?
- Orichalcum is pronounced /ɒɹɪˈkælkəm/ (UK).
Words near orichalcum in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: orichalcum (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.
Last updated:
Cite this entry: “orichalcum.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/orichalcum. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.