Gold and silver

[IwateBuddy]

A student asked me the other day if the word silver has a corresponding adjective like golden. I told him that there is a word, silvern but it's obsolete. Now he wants to know why? Any insights on the use of metallic adjectives in general?

[amigos4]

A student asked me the other day if the word silver has a corresponding adjective like golden. I told him that there is a word, silvern but it's obsolete. Now he wants to know why? Any insights on the use of metallic adjectives in general?

How about using the adjective 'silvery'?

[kfredson]

A student asked me the other day if the word silver has a corresponding adjective like golden. I told him that there is a word, silvern but it's obsolete. Now he wants to know why? Any insights on the use of metallic adjectives in general?

When using a metal as a adjective we generally don't change its form: an iron gate, a gold ring, a silver chalice, etc. Your use of golden refers to the color. The same goes for silvery (which actually means silver-like.)

[Tdol]

We also have expressions where it's being used metaphorically like golden handshake

[amigos4]

The William Butler Yeats poem The Song of the Wandering Aengus, has the lines:

I will find out where she has gone
And kiss her lips and take her hands;
And walk among the dappled grass,
And pluck till time and times are done
The silver apples of the moon,
The golden apples of the sun.

[bhaisahab]

The William Butler Yeats poem The Song of the Wandering Aengus, has the lines:

I will find out where she has gone
And kiss her lips and take her hands;
And walk among the dappled grass,
And pluck till time and times are done
The silver apples of the moon,
The golden apples of the sun.

Here is the whole poem, just because it's beautiful. The hazel wood Yeats speaks of is on the old estate of his friend Lady Gregory, close to his old home at Thoor Ballylea in Co. Galway, Ireland. You should go there if you get the chance, it's magical.

• 
  
  • WENT out to the hazel wood,
  • Because a fire was in my head,
  • And cut and peeled a hazel wand,
  • And hooked a berry to a thread;
  • And when white moths were on the wing,
  • And moth-like stars were flickering out,
  • I dropped the berry in a stream
  • And caught a little silver trout.
  • When I had laid it on the floor
  • I went to blow the fire a-flame,
  • But something rustled on the floor,
  • And some one called me by my name:
  • It had become a glimmering girl
  • With apple blossom in her hair
  • Who called me by my name and ran
  • And faded through the brightening air.
  • Though I am old with wandering
  • Through hollow lands and hilly lands,
  • I will find out where she has gone,
  • And kiss her lips and take her hands;
  • And walk among long dappled grass,
  • And pluck till time and times are done
  • The silver apples of the moon,
  • The golden apples of the sun.
  • It has also been recorded as a song by the Irish singer Christy Moore.
  
  

[amigos4]

Here is the whole poem, just because it's beautiful. The hazel wood Yeats speaks of is on the old estate of his friend Lady Gregory, close to his old home at Thoor Ballylea in Co. Galway, Ireland. You should go there if you get the chance, it's magical.

• 
  
  • WENT out to the hazel wood,
  • Because a fire was in my head,
  • And cut and peeled a hazel wand,
  • And hooked a berry to a thread;
  • And when white moths were on the wing,
  • And moth-like stars were flickering out,
  • I dropped the berry in a stream
  • And caught a little silver trout.
  • When I had laid it on the floor
  • I went to blow the fire a-flame,
  • But something rustled on the floor,
  • And some one called me by my name:
  • It had become a glimmering girl
  • With apple blossom in her hair
  • Who called me by my name and ran
  • And faded through the brightening air.
  • Though I am old with wandering
  • Through hollow lands and hilly lands,
  • I will find out where she has gone,
  • And kiss her lips and take her hands;
  • And walk among long dappled grass,
  • And pluck till time and times are done
  • The silver apples of the moon,
  • The golden apples of the sun.
  • It has also been recorded as a song by the Irish singer Christy Moore.

Thanks, bhaisahab! I just Googled the song! Very nice!