Silver
Facts... Interesting, Curious and / or Useless
View by... scientific | interesting
and miscellaneous
Interesting, Curious and / or Useless
There is no other word in the english language that rhymes with silver
other than the word chilver, (The Oxford English Dictionary lists
chilver as an Old English noun meaning a ewe lamb).
In a dozen or more languages, the words 'money' and 'silver'
are the same.
At various times in history silver was even more valued than gold. In
the earliest Egyptian records, it was considered more precious than gold.
The Egyptians gave silver the symbol of a semi-circle and later a crescent
moon symbol. They gave gold the symbol
of a full circle.
Silver is used to represent the twenty-fifth wedding anniversary.
In India, food can be found decorated with a thin layer of
silver, known as Varak
'Argyria' is
the condition of having too much silver compounds introduced into
the body's circulatory system resulting in a greyish pigmentation
of the skin and mucous membranes.
Throughout the ages, silver jewelry has been associated with
magical powers; believed to promote healing, bring good luck
and for warding off evil spirits to the wearer.
Silver jewelry (necklaces) were placed
around children's' necks in ancient china in hope of warding of evil.
The Incas of Peru called silver "the tears of the moon",
because of its' unusual gleam.
Before 1797 British pennies used to be made out of silver.
Argentina was named from Argentum, the element of silver's
Latin name.
The spanish name for silver is 'plata', for french 'argent'.
for italian
'argento', and for german 'silber'.
Sterling silver is composed of 92.5% silver alloyed with copper
to strengthen it. Mexican and Britannia silver each have about
95% silver. Coin silver usually has about 90% silver.
The word 'sterling' was first used with silver during the 13th century.
The origin of sterling comes from a combination of an Old Norman
French word 'esterlin' meaning 'little star' and 'steire', and Old
English word meaning strong, immovable and firm.
There was 1,740,000 metric tons of silver discovered in the
world up to the year 2007.
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