DCHP-1 Online

copper

• 1a n. Hist. in colonial times, a copper coin valued at one half-penny in York currency. See 1844 quote.

  See also: York currency  

  • 1767  Just published, and to be Sold . . . at Eighteen Coppers each, or One Dollar per Dozen, A Sheet Almanac . . . fitted to the Latitude of Quebec.
  • 1844  The Shilling currency is subdivided into twenty-four copper coins, called Coppers. Coins of this metal, of Colonial, British and American origin, and of various denomination, are common, and each is pretty generally taken as the equivalent of a copper, without much reference to its intrinsic value.
  • 1905  The penny of the New York currency was equivalent to our present cent, but the name "copper" was generally used then instead of cent.

• 1b n. a Canadian one-cent piece, first minted in 1858.

  See also: cent  

  • 1863  No you didn't stare about as they did, as if the house and fixins was a show at a copper a head.
  • 1916  Coppers are not in general circulation west of Calgary. Employés at railway news and curio stands are instructed to refuse them, and tourists relate incidents of their being declined at Government post offices.
  • 1954  . . . he opened his huge fists and tossed fifty shining new coppers into the air.

• 2 n. a shield-shaped sheet of copper used by West Coast Indians as a symbol of wealth or distinction, often prominent in gift-giving ceremonies.

  • 1912 [1913]  Perhaps the most noteworthy product is the unique, shield-like "coppers" made of sheet metal and highly esteemed as symbols of wealth and distinction. The origin of these "coppers" and of their peculiar form and use is not known.
  • 1926  The potlatch . . . has been banned, and the bartering of coppers declared illegal.
  • 1956  He would take a "copper," a shield-shaped sheet of copper [at a potlatch], and break it up, throwing the pieces away, or giving them as presents to his rivals. This has more meaning when we understand that these "coppers" were symbols of great wealth.

• 3 n. Slang a Copper Eskimo.

  • 1942  West-coast coppers, the caribou Eskimos of central Canada, with girlish hair-bobs and dickey-flaps on their parkas, resemble the Eskimos of Greenland . . . .