Gold is the common name for this yellow rare metal, but it’s not its true name. Gold has been known by many different names in almost every culture. Gold as we now know it is a term that has Old English and Germanic roots.
Geolu is the Old English translation of the German Gothic word “gultha”, which was used to express gold in German Gothic. Geolu means “yellow”, referring to the most prominent characteristic of gold: its yellowish colour. The Middle English language brought about another change to the word in the 12th century. Our modern word gold was born.
Gold is represented by the chemical symbol AU on the periodic chart of elements. The symbol pays homage to the Latin term aurum (loosely translated “glowing dawn”), which was used in Ancient Rome to describe gold. Gold was not discovered by the Ancient Romans as they were not first. They did improve the methods of mining and extracting gold, increasing its availability throughout their empire. These improved gold mining methods developed by Ancient Romans are still in use today.