Meanings
- 1
- 2
Thesaurus
A compound of gold and latten, recorded for both actual gold in thin plates and gilded base-metal sheet. Latten came through Middle English latoun and Old French laton or laiton from Arabic latun, 'copper or copper alloy'; its deeper history is often connected with Turkic words for gold. The historical spelling is normally open, but it is hyphenated attributively in Wilde.