The purity of gold is measured in carats. The word comes from the Greek keration, the carob tree. A member of the pea family with horn-shaped pods (keras means “horn”), its seeds were believed all to be the same weight, making them a handy standard for measurement. A pure gold coin was defined as weighing the same as 24 carob seeds, so “24 carat” became the measure of 100 per cent purity for gold, 99-99.9 per cent in actual fact. Gold deemed “18 carat” is around 75 per cent pure.
“Gold” is descended from the Prot-Indo-European root ghel- meaning “yellow” or “bright” and its chemical symbol Au comes from the Latin aurum, which also means “dawn light”.
The purity of gold is measured in carats. The word comes from the Greek keration, the carob tree. A member of the pea family with horn-shaped pods (keras means “horn”), its seeds were believed all to be the same weight, making them a handy standard for measurement. A pure gold coin was defined as weighing the same as 24 carob seeds, so “24 carat” became the measure of 100 per cent purity for gold, 99-99.9 per cent in actual fact. Gold deemed “18 carat” is around 75 per cent pure.
“Gold” is descended from the Prot-Indo-European root ghel- meaning “yellow” or “bright” and its chemical symbol Au comes from the Latin aurum, which also means “dawn light”.
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