Emily Dickinson Lexicon

MET'AL, n. [met'l; Fr. from L. metallum; Gr. metallon; Sw. and G. metall; D. metaal; Dan. metal; Sp. id.; It. metallo; Ir. miotal; W. mettel.]

1. A simple, fixed, shining, opake body or substance, insoluble in water, fusible by heat, a good conductor of heat of electricity, capable when in the state of an oxyd, of uniting with acids and forming with them metallic salts. Many of the metals are also malleable or extensible by the hammer, and some of them extremely ductile. Metals are mostly fossil, sometimes found native or pure, but more generally combined with other matter. Some metals are more malleable than others, and this circumstance gave rise to the distinction of metals and semi-metals; a distinction little regarded at the present day. Recent discoveries have enlarged the list of the metals. Twelve are malleable, viz. platinum, gold, silver, mercury, lead, copper, tin, iron, zink, palladium, nickel, and cadmium. The following sixteen are not sufficiently tenacious to bear extension by beating, viz. arsenic, antimony, bismuth, cobalt, manganese, tellurium, titanium, columbium, molybden, tungsten, chrome, osmium, iridium, rhodium, uranium, and cerium. Encyc. Nicholson. Thomson. Phillips. Ure. To these may be added potassium, sodium, barium, strontium, calcium, lithium, and several others. Henry.
2. Courage; spirit; so written by mistake for Mettle.