copper

Etymology 1

From Middle English coper, from Old English coper, copor (“copper”), from Late Latin cuprum (“copper”), contraction of Latin aes Cyprium (literally “Cyprian brass”), from Ancient Greek Κύπρος (Kúpros, “Cyprus”). Cognate with Dutch koper (“copper”), German Kupfer (“copper”), Icelandic kopar (“copper”).

noun

1. (uncountable) A reddish-brown, malleable, ductile metallic element with high electrical and thermal conductivity, symbol Cu, and atomic number 29.
2. The reddish-brown colour/color of copper.
   copper:
3. (countable, dated) Any of various specialized items that are made of copper, where the use of copper is either traditional or vital to the function of the item.
   1. (countable) A copper coin, typically of a small denomination, such as a penny.
      I had in my pocket a handful of copper money, three or four silver dollars, and five pistoles in gold. As he proceeded I began to soften, and concluded to give the coppers. 1799, Benjamin Franklin, edited by John Bigelow, The Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin, published 1868, page 255
   2. (UK, Australia, dated) A large pot, often used for heating water or washing clothes over a fire. In Australasia at least, it could also be a fixed installation made of copper, with a fire underneath and its own chimney. Generally made redundant by the advent of the washing machine.
      Mum would heat the water in a copper in the kitchen and transfer it to the tin bath.
      I explain that socks can’t be boiled up in the copper with the sheets and towels or they shrink.
      When the water in the copper boils, the arsenic and tartar, well pounded, is put into it, and kept boiling till the liquor is reduced to about half. 1797, “Dyeing”, in Colin Macfarquhar, George Gleig, editors, Encyclopædia Britannica: or, A Dictionary of Arts, Sciences, and Miscellaneous Literature, Volume 6, Part 1 p.207
      'You had better mind you don't get up too early, and you mustn't put any fire under the copper before two o'clock.' 1886, Peter Christen Asbjørnsen, translated by H.L. Brækstad, Folk and Fairy Tales, page 6
      He rose to his knees, for he had been sitting in the darkness near the copper. 1898, H.G. Wells, The War of the Worlds, London: William Heinemann, page 230
      'Vot game now she play?' he asked himself, as he distinguished his wife near one of the pig-scalding coppers. 1907, Barbara Baynton, edited by Sally Krimmer and Alan Lawson, Human Toll (Portable Australian Authors: Barbara Baynton), St Lucia: University of Queensland Press, published 1980, page 254
      The wet laundry's stove had a long vent in the ceiling which helped to release the steam from the coppers in which the clothes and bed linen were boiled. 2000, Christopher Christie, The British Country House in the Eighteenth Century, page 266
4. (entomology) Any of various lycaenid butterflies with copper-coloured upperwings, especially those of the genera Lycaena and Paralucia.

adj

1. Made of copper.
2. Having the reddish-brown colour/color of copper.
   She seemed so alive, with her shining eyes and her copper hair and her jokes and funny stories, but there was always a mystery at the center of her life, the sound of wild sobbing my mother said she heard coming through the floor. 1999, Maria M. Gillan, Things My Mother Told Me, page 38

verb

1. To sheathe or coat with copper.

Etymology 2

From cop (“to take, capture, seize”) + -er (agent noun suffix).

noun

1. (slang, law enforcement) A police officer.