mettle

Meanings

1. 1
   noun

   a person's spirit, courage, and resolve under pressure

   The crisis tested the young captain's mettle.

Simplified etymology

Mettle was originally the same word as metal, ultimately from Greek metallon, “mine,” “quarry,” or “metal.” In the 17th century its figurative sense developed into “vigor” or “spiritedness,” first of horses and later of people, and by the mid-18th century the spelling mettle was reserved for this meaning.

A variant spelling of metal (from Old French metal, from Latin metallum 'metal, mine', from Greek métallon), originally a figurative use of 'metal' for a person's intrinsic quality or temper; the spellings diverged in the 17th century.

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External links

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• Cambridge Dictionary
• Wiktionary