Materials & Objects
Each year the tightly collared, bespectacled dictionary nerds at Merriam-Webster evaluate popular publications and spoken language to find new words to officially add to their dictionary. The newest inclusions often tell a story of what was happening in the English-speaking world over the past year, and the 2021 words are particularly timestamped.
New pandemic-related meanings were added to the previously fun words pod and bubble. Internet slang continued its infiltration of our language, with the informal inclusion of @, as in “don’t @ me,” and the addition of a new, non-muscular meaning for flex, the act of bragging or showing off. Crowdfunding and Gig worker are now in the dictionary, which may tell you something about our social safety net, and ASMR also made it, which is pleasant.
These are just a few of the new inclusions. They, and other recently developed words, communicate complex concepts about geopolitics, the human condition, and our increasing reliance on digital habitats.
In contrast, back in the day, many new words were quite simple. The low-hanging fruit hadn’t been harvested. There was a time when adding a new word to the dictionary was as simple as naming a material you found in the ground and telling a few of your friends. Sometimes a person would even invent a new object using the material they found in the ground, and then they would just recycle the same word. Those were days of few words and slim dictionaries.
What’s the sitch with raw materials that are also objects with the same name?
…and is that an interesting list to compile?
Perhaps we should include that caveat in more of our prompts on this website. What’s the sitch, but first, is this even worth thinking about?
When trying to find out whether something is interesting, in addition to squeezing my eyes shut and thinking real hard about, I often start with a basic Google search.
Such as, “raw materials and objects with the same name.” Not much.
How about the slightly more exact, “raw materials with homonymous objects.” Even less.
Unsatisfying Google search results are often a sign that whatever was Googled is not interesting. None of the billions of other people using the internet have felt this topic was worthy of written thought.
Alternatively, and much more rarely, are topics that are both interesting and that have not been thoroughly posted about on the internet. We here at whatsthesitch.com love to imagine those topics are our bread and butter. But we do acknowledge that interesting is vague and subjective, and that we here at whatsthesitch.com have quite a low threshold for finding a topic interesting. Especially when it comes to raw materials.
So again, what’s the sitch with raw materials that are also objects with the same name?
Tin
Material: Tin is an element with the atomic number 50 and symbol Sn (from the Latin stannum). To be honest, I didn’t think much of tin until I found it it had the coveted atomic number 50. That's an important spot! I know those numbers aren’t necessarily a ranking of best to worst element, but still, gold (Au) is all the way at number 79! Tin is kind of crushing it. If you are so motivated, you can mix tin with copper to make bronze, and there is a whole age of human history named for this alloy. Not bad tin, not bad at all.
Object: Tin isn’t as reactive and toxic as some of its soft metallic cousins (such as lead) so historically has been a good material to make cans for food storage, which are also called tins.
Used in a sentence: “Pass me that tin of beans, would ya?”
Iron
Material: Iron is an element with the atomic number 26 and symbol Fe (from the Latin ferrum). By mass, it is the most abundant element on Earth, edging out oxygen by a couple of percent. Dayum! Iron also has an age of human history named after it, and it didn’t even have to pair with another metal to get recognized. This is a powerful material that has stood the test of time with broad functionality and good branding. You’ve made it on yet another list iron, keep up the strong work.
Object: Some of us still use irons to get wrinkles out of our clothes, or waves out of our hair, or even to make waffles. Originally these tools were handheld flat pieces of iron heated with flame or hot coals. Their clothes must have been very wrinkly to go through all of that.
Used in a sentence: “I don’t have time to use an iron on my wrinkled shirt, I have to finish these beans!”
Marble
Material: The word marble likely derives from the Ancient Greek mármaron, meaning “shining stone.” Marble is crystalized calcium carbonate (aka limestone) that has been subject to years of heat and pressure, known in geology as metamorphosis. Pure limestone protolith results in flawless white marble, while deposits of other minerals create colorful accents and veins within the stone. Because of its relative malleability, resistance to shattering, and the softness with which it refracts light, marble has been a favorite material of sculptures and builders for thousands of years.
Object: Like iron before it, marble is a more functional and respected material than the object by the same name. Marbles are small round balls made for children to play games with. These simple toys were historically made from stone, though now they are primarily made from glass or plastic. A relatively underwhelming homonymous object for the preferred sculpting material of Michelangelo, Donatello, and all the other ninja turtles.
Used in a sentence: “I think he lost his marbles, he refuses to eat anything except for beans.”
Chalk
Material: Chalk is a porous varietal of limestone formed from deposited microscopic shells of plankton. Theoretically, if on a hot day you pressed down really hard on a piece of chalk, you might make marble! Chalk is used to make bricks or as a sealant in construction, and it is widely used in agriculture to raise the pH of soils. Purified chalk (aka limestone aka calcium carbonate) is also used as an antacid (aka Tums) in human stomachs. Perhaps most famously, chalk is easy to crumble, so can be used to write on rough surfaces such as blackboards or sidewalks.
Object: The truth is, chalk may not be on this list in a decade or two. Chalk, the object, is a writing tool primarily used on blackboards and sidewalks. Blackboards were in the process of being phased out in favor of whiteboards when whiteboards began to be phased out in favor of digital displays. I don’t see us taking two steps back to blackboards anytime soon. Sidewalks, the other most common surface for chalk, are still used commonly, but when jetpacks become safe and affordable walking will be phased out quickly, leaving sidewalks without purpose and chalk without a surface to disintegrate onto. Chalk would no longer qualify as an object, and would return to its original state, as a simple material. Among the many changes we will be forced to adjust to in our modern world, this one will be relatively painless. I welcome the end of chalk as we know it. Stop the chalk.
Used in a sentence: “I was writing with chalk so now my hands are dirty; perhaps I should have used a ballpoint pen because then my hands would still be clean, clean enough for a barehanded bean-feed.”
Slate
Material: As you probably know, slate is the finest grained of all foliated metamorphic rocks. It has a high degree of fissility, so forms smooth flat pieces when properly struck, and for this reason has long been used for roofing, flooring, and to make handheld boards for writing on.
Object: Quoting from the Wikipedia entry, “The word ‘slate' is also used for certain types of objects made from slate rock,” which is exactly the subject of this sitch. We are of one mind Wikipedia. Originally, a slate was made from slate and it was physically a slate. The word is now also used more broadly to describe nebulous slates that “hold” amorphous nouns in a figurative sense. I remember when we used to make things in this country.
Used in a sentence: “There is a great slate of football games on this Sunday. Beans?”
Nickel
Material: At atomic number 28, nickel is just two spots down from iron and it’s one spot ahead of copper at 29, a fact nickel doesn’t let copper forget.
Object: The United States’ coin worth five cents is also called a nickel, though they are composed of 25% nickel, with the other 75% being copper. This is another distinction nickel lords over its softer cousin; though copper contributes far more per coin, nickels are named after their lustrous, silver ingredient.
Not unlike chalk, this entry for nickel may be retired from the list pretty soon. These days I mostly use coins to make wishes in fountains, but that should only be done with a penny (which is inherently lucky) or a quarter (to pay the fountain merfolk a reasonable amount for their services). Perhaps, in a pinch, you could tape five nickels together and throw that into a fountain, but I wouldn’t expect that wish to be granted, and such a mass of coins could really injure a merfolk, even with their magic.
Used in a sentence, 150 years ago: “Can I borrow a nickel? We are going to put it toward remodeling our kitchen. Yeah, the room where we cook beans.”
Glass
Material: Glass is that ubiquitous transparent brittle material made from silicon dioxide. It is made from melting silica and then rapidly cooling it, freezing it in a non-crystalline form. Quartz is a mineral made of crystalline silicon dioxide, so its resemblance to glass makes sense.
Again, quoting Wikipedia, “Some objects, such as drinking glasses and eyeglasses, are so commonly made of silicate-based glass that they are simply called by the name of the material.” The folks over there really get it; they support whatsthesitch.com more than they’ll ever know.
Object: As Wikipedia mentioned, a glass is a cup made of glass. Pretty straightforward. There are also glasses, which are corrective lenses made of glass held in front of nerds’ eyes with metal or plastic frames. It is interesting that out of all of the objects made out of glass material, these two were the chosen homonyms. Imagine a world where, instead, glasses are called windows and windows are called glasses. I hope someday we can get there, to that better place.
Used in a sentence: “We need to clean the glasses in our bedroom, they are covered in bird shit!”
Cork
Material: Cork is natural material obtained from the bark of the Quercus suber (aka the cork oak, though I like Quercus better, and perhaps we should be calling the material querc). Cork is well known for being impermeable to liquid, for being squishy, and for floating, all of which have contributed to its use in a variety of industries for thousands of years.
Object: As objects, corks are plugs for bottles made from the squishy wood of the same name. We here at whatsthesitch.com are not in the habit of writing squishy wood very often, as we strive to be a family friendly website. That said, when we must write squishy wood to adequately describe our subject, as is the case with cork, we do so repeatedly and with gusto; we don’t know when we will have another legitimate opportunity to write squishy wood.
Used in a sentence: “The cork broke when we tried to open the bottle of wine; it had aged from a young squishy wood into an old crumbly wood.”
Rubber
Material: Not unlike querc, natural rubber also comes from plants, with Hevea brasiliensis (the Amazonian rubber tree) being the most productive. When these trees are “tapped,” a milky emulsion of polyisoprene (natural rubber), proteins, resins, and other plant juices ooze out. This material is collected, cleaned, concentrated, and dried for use. Approximately 30% of rubber produced each year is still from natural sources, while the rest is synthesized. Interestingly, “latex” is a general term for the milky emulsions released by certain plants following a tissue injury, but only some plants produce latex containing natural rubber… keep that one in your back pocket for the next work happy hour!
Object: This entry takes us even further away from our purported goal of family friendliness. Even though rubber is used in a variety of wholesome roles, the object named after the material is a disposable tube used to prevent unwanted pregnancy and the spread of venereal disease. Again, could we not call tires rubbers? Or rubber gloves rubbers? Or even basketballs rubbers? And then we could call condoms basketballs?
Used in a sentence: “I’m having trouble using a rubber because of my squishy wood.”
Wood
Material: Has this sitch gone on long enough yet? Do you want us to explain to you what wood is, or do you think a description of this material is OK to skip?
Object: As an object, a wood is a type of golf club. As shown in the entries above, it is also accepted slang for a male erection (perhaps second to only “boner” in terms of popularity). Both of these are pretty shaky qualifications for wood to be included on this prestigious list. Outside of the context of a round of golf, “Hand me my wood,” is not a clear set of instructions. A wood is only used in a specific and exclusive game, in contrast with a tin or a glass or a cork, all well-known objects across multiple situations.
Used in a sentence: “That attractive employee at the golf course gave me this wood that you see here.”
Silver
Material: Another shiny metallic element, silver is atomic number 47 and has the symbol Ag (from the Latin argentum meaning “shiny” or “white”). How many words did those people have for “shiny metal thingy?” I’m glad we have evolved so much since then; now we can stare at the colorful moving pictures we are holding instead of at the shiny metal jewelry we are holding.
Object: Silverware are (is?) utensils for eating, which were historically made out of silver metal. These utensils were sometimes referred to as just “the silver,” so the word qualifies for our list, albeit with an asterisk. Today, just as we call tissues Kleenex even when most are not name brand, we call metal utensils silverware even though most don’t contain any silver. In fact, most new utensils produced these days don’t contain metal of any sort.
Used in a sentence: “I was born with a silver spoon, which is fortunate because these beans are looking ready to eat.”
Honorable Mentions Object
Copper - Reddish metal, Cu 29 Slang for police officer
Lead - Soft metal, Pb 82 Slang for bullets or bullet-proof vest
Gold - Precious metal, Au 79 Someone stuffed up saying “I have a cold”
Coal - Carboniferous material Someone stuffed up saying “I have a cold”
Air / Heir - Earth’s atmosphere A person inheriting wealth or power
