An Etymological Dictionary of Astronomy and Astrophysics

A metallic → chemical element;
symbol Ag (L. argentum). → Atomic number 47; → atomic weight 107.8682; → melting point 961.93°C; → boiling point 2,212°C; → specific gravity 10.5 at 20°C. Pure silver is nearly white, lustrous, soft, very ductile, malleable, and an excellent conductor of heat and electricity.

Silver is generated in stars through a special rapid process of → neutron captures. This process defers from the main → r-process, the main and weak → s-process, and charged particle freeze-outs. In other words, during a → supernova explosion, silver is formed in a different → fusion process from the one that forms → gold (Hansen et al., 2012, A&A 545, A31).

Etymology (EN): M.E. silver(e), selver(e), selfer; O.E. seolfor “silver;” cf. O.S. silvbar, O.N. silfr, M.Du. silver, Du. zilver, O.H.G. sillabar, Ger. silber, Goth. silubr, akin to Serbo-Croatian srebro, Rus. serebo, Lith. sidabras “silver.”

L. argentum “silver, white money,” from PIE *arg-ent-, from PIE *arg- “to be bright, shine;” cf. Av. ərəzata- “silver,” auruša- “white” (Mid.Pers. arus “white, bright”); O.Pers. ardata- “silver;” Mod.Pers. arziz “silvery metal tin;” Skt. arjuna- “white, shining,” rajata- “silver;” Gk. argos “white,” arguron “silver;” Arm. arcat; Hittite harki- “white.”

Etymology (PE): Noqré from Sogdian nâkartak “uncoined (silver),” literally “undone,” from nâ- negation prefix “not, no” (Mid.Pers. ne, O.Pers. naiy, Av. na-, (particle of negation noit), Skt. na-, (ned), Gk. né- “not,” L. ne-, in-, un-, PIE *ne-) + kartak “done,” p.p. of kardan “to do, to make;”
kâr “work,” variant kar
(Mid.Pers. kardan; O.Pers./Av. kar- “to do, make, build;” Av. kərənaoiti “he makes;” cf. Skt. kr- “to do, to make,” krnoti “he makes, he does,” karoti “he makes, he does,” karma “act, deed;” PIE base k^wer- “to do, to make”), Sogdian nâktênê “of silver.” Note that another word in Pers. for silver is sim, which has a semantic form comparable to that of noqré, since it derives from Mid.Pers. asêm, from Gk. asemon “without mark, uncoined, shapeless, formless,” from argurion asemon “uncoined money.”