yuánzì Chinese characters of the chemical elements
铜

Copper Cu · 29

tóng

solid metal · period 4, group 11 · d-block

Anatomy

钅 radical 金 jīn
metal → solid metal
+ 同 phonetic =
铜 tóng

Ancient name. Known in China long before modern chemistry; the old character was kept. Named in ancient China

History of the character

Every form found in the sources, from the first missionary chemistry books of the 1850s to the current standards. Hover a dot for the source. Simplified 铜, traditional 銅.

1850187519001925195019752000antiquitytoday
赤金 chìjīn
antiquity · 古名 · Pre-modern usage — Classical texts (Shuōwén Jiězì, Běncǎo Gāngmù) “red metal”
銅 tóng
antiquity · 古名 · Pre-modern usage — Classical texts (Shuōwén Jiězì, Běncǎo Gāngmù)1868 · 格物入門 · Géwù Rùmén (1868) — W. A. P. Martin (丁韙良), Tongwen College1870 · 化學初階 · Huàxué Chūjiē (1870) — John G. Kerr (嘉約翰) & Hé Liǎorán (何瞭然)1871 · 金石識別 · Jīnshí Shíbié (1871) — D. J. MacGowan (瑪高溫) & Huà Héngfāng (華蘅芳)1871 · 化學鑑原 · Huàxué Jiànyuán (1871) — Xú Shòu (徐壽) & John Fryer (傅蘭雅), Jiangnan Arsenal
  1. antiquity 赤金 chìjīn 古名 Pre-modern usage, Classical texts (Shuōwén Jiězì, Běncǎo Gāngmù) “red metal”
  2. antiquity 銅 tóng 古名 Pre-modern usage, Classical texts (Shuōwén Jiězì, Běncǎo Gāngmù)
  3. 1868 銅 格物入門 Géwù Rùmén, W. A. P. Martin (丁韙良), Tongwen College
  4. 1870 銅 化學初階 Huàxué Chūjiē, John G. Kerr (嘉約翰) & Hé Liǎorán (何瞭然)
  5. 1871 銅 金石識別 Jīnshí Shíbié, D. J. MacGowan (瑪高溫) & Huà Héngfāng (華蘅芳)
  6. 1871 銅 化學鑑原 Huàxué Jiànyuán, Xú Shòu (徐壽) & John Fryer (傅蘭雅), Jiangnan Arsenal

Homophones

No other element shares this syllable.

Elsewhere

Japanese 銅 Korean 구리 Vietnamese đồng

Western name from Greek? via Latin, West Germanic, Old English, and Middle English Κύπριος (Kyprios)?, “who/which is from Cyprus”. Compare all

Unicode

U+94DC in CJK Unified Ideographs