dignified

Solid gold

Solid copper and silver on one level

Solid platinum as a nugget

Solid iron , found in basalt (Bühl near Ahnatal-Weimar )

In mineralogy, the occurrence of pure chemical elements in nature is called dignified . The best-known examples are the precious metals gold , silver and the platinum metals as well as copper .

Many non-metals such as carbon , sulfur , oxygen , nitrogen and noble gases also occur in nature in elemental form. Even the most reactive element fluorine can briefly appear in elemental form if it escapes when stinkspar is struck.

Commonly this is adjective dignified but primarily in metals . Here it is often used undeclined , that is, in the form of "solid gold", "solid silver" and others instead of solid gold .

mineralogy

So far, around 30 elements have been detected in nature in their pure form (as of 2016) and have been recognized as independent minerals by the International Mineralogical Association (IMA) .

• Metals, naturally occurring and recognized by the IMA: aluminum , lead , cadmium , chromium , iron , gold , indium , iridium , copper , molybdenum , nickel , osmium , palladium , platinum , mercury , rhodium , ruthenium , silver , titanium , vanadium , Tungsten , zinc , tin
• Semi-metals: antimony , arsenic , bismuth (bismuth), selenium , silicon , tellurium
• Non-metals: carbon ( diamond , graphite , lonsdaleite ), sulfur (sulfur, rosickýite , β-sulfur )

The systematics of minerals assigns them to alloys , intermetallic compounds and carbides in the class of "elements". Around ten elements can be found on earth to a geologically relevant extent, including the metals copper, silver and gold already mentioned. Since native elements are relatively easy to access, they were already extracted and processed in ancient mining .

Figurative meaning

In everyday language , the expression dignified mostly means that something is stylish, elegant or pure and good in a tried and tested manner. The term is used less often in the sense of relaxed, calm, pleasant. In northern Germany in particular, there is another , rather negative meaning that comes from the Low German language . There is also used dignified in the sense of strange, strange, uncanny or incomprehensible.

2013 landed dignified in 3rd place in the election for the German youth word of the year , and explained with the words super, cool, casual .

literature

• Rudolf Graubner: Lexicon of geology, minerals and rocks . Emil Vollmer Verlag GmbH, Munich 1980, ISBN 3-87876-327-1 , p. 127 .

Web links

Commons : Native element minerals  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

Wiktionary: dignified  - explanations of meanings, word origins, synonyms, translations

• Mineral Atlas: solid , as well as the element classes 1.A , 1.B , 1.C and 1.D (classification according to Karl Hugo Strunz , 9th edition)
• Mindat - Chemical Index of Minerals - Group 1 (English, with details of the locations of the individual minerals)
• Webmineral - Minerals Arranged by the New Dana Classification, Native Elements (Classification according to James Dwight Dana )
• German dictionary by Jacob and Wilhelm Grimm online dignified

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Hans Jürgen Rösler : Textbook of Mineralogy . 4th, revised and expanded edition. German publishing house for basic industry (VEB), Leipzig 1987, ISBN 3-342-00288-3 , p.  57 .
2. ↑ Native silver (= Christian Weise [Ed.]: ExtraLapis . Band  8 ). Christian Weise Verlag, 1995, ISSN  0945-8492 .
3. ^ Johann Carl Free Life (ed.): Abraham Gottlob Werner's last mineral system . Craz and Gerlach, Freyberg and Vienna 1817, p. 17 ( limited preview in Google Book search).
4. ↑ dignified. Duden, 2013, accessed June 6, 2014 .  
5. ↑ Hey, Babo! Süddeutsche Zeitung , November 25, 2013, accessed on May 15, 2014 .