galēna

Meaning

1. lead ore
   Excoqui non potest, nisi cum plumbo nigro aut cum vena plumbi – galenam vocant – quae iuxta argenti venas plerumque reperitur.It cannot be smelted, except together with lead or with the vein of lead – they call it galena – that is mostly found next to veins of silver.77–79, Pliny the Elder, “Silver” (chapter 31), in Natural History, Book 33:
   societ[atis]·argent[iarium] fod[inarum]·mont[is]·ilvcr[?] galenaSIL[VER] CO[MPANY]; MIN[ES] OF MT ILUCR[?]; GALENA; that is, “property of the Silver (Mines) Company; from the mines of Mount Ilucr…; made of galena.”1st century, inscription on a lead ingot; published in Heinrich Dressel, Corpus Inscriptionum Latinarum [Corpus of Latin Inscriptions], Berlin: Georg Reimer, 1899, section 7916, page 987:
2. broadlythe dross that remains after smelting this ore
   Huius qui primus fuit in fornacibus liquor stagnum appellatur; qui secundus argentum; quod remansit in fornacibus, galena, quae fit tertia portio additae venae; haec rursus conflata dat nigrum plumbum deductis partibus nonis II.That which first becomes liquid in the furnaces is called stagnum; that which is second is silver; what remains in the furnaces is galena, which forms a third portion of the added vein; when again made to fuse this gives black lead, two-ninths having been deducted.77–79, Pliny the Elder, “The Ores of Lead” (chapter 47), in Natural History, Book 34:
   Est et molybdaena, quam alio loco galenam appellavimus, vena argenti plumbique communis.There is also molybdaena, which elsewhere we have called galena, a mineral of silver and lead together.77–79, Pliny the Elder, “Molybdaena: Fifteen Remedies” (chapter 53), in Natural History, Book 34:

Declension

Origins

Possibly from Proto-Indo-European *ǵl̥h₂-es- (“glimmering, cheerful”). See cognate Ancient Greek γαλήνη (galḗnē, “serenity, calmness; type of metal mineral”).