Latten

//ˈlætən// noun

noun ·Rare ·Advanced level

Definitions

Noun
  1. 1
    An alloy of copper and tin, similar to bronze, with a sufficient portion of tin to make it a pewter-like color with yellowish tinge (rather than the brownish-gold color of bronze of higher copper content), once used in thin sheets and for domestic utensils and light-duty tools. archaic, countable, historical, uncountable
  2. 2
    brass (or a yellow alloy resembling brass) that was hammered into thin sheets; formerly used for church utensils wordnet
  3. 3
    Sheet tin; iron plate, covered with tin. countable, uncountable
  4. 4
    Any metal in thin sheets. countable, uncountable

    "gold latten"

Etymology

From Middle English laten, latun, latoun, from Old French laton, laiton, from Arabic لَاطُون (lāṭūn, “copper, copper alloy”), itself from Proto-Common Turkic *altun (“gold”). See Turkish altın, Old Turkic 𐰞𐱃𐰆𐰣 (altun, “gold”), Karakhanid اَلْتُونْ (altūn, “gold”).

Related phrases

Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.