A reddish metal used in wiring and other goods.
A place remembered in a metal
Latin
(aes) Cyprium
‘Cyprian metal’
into Late Latin
Late Latin
cuprum
‘copper’
into Proto-Germanic
Proto-Germanic
*kupar
reconstructed: not recorded in writing
into Old English
Old English
coper
became Middle English
Middle English
coper
became English
English
copper
Copper goes back to the Latin expression aes Cyprium, Cyprian metal. The shorter Late Latin cuprum entered English before the Middle English spelling coper.
Old English is an intermediary even though it has no separate card. The police-officer noun copper has a separate derivation.
A geographical description survived as the everyday name of a material.