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matte²

(măt)

A mixture of a metal with its sulfides, produced by smelting the sulfide ores of copper, lead, or nickel.

[French, curdled milk, matte, from feminine of obsolete mat, compact, from Old French, dull, from Latin mattus, stupefied; see MAT².]

Indo-European & Semitic Roots Appendices

Thousands of entries in the dictionary include etymologies that trace their origins back to reconstructed proto-languages. You can obtain more information about these forms in our online appendices:

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Semitic Roots

The Indo-European appendix covers nearly half of the Indo-European roots that have left their mark on English words. A more complete treatment of Indo-European roots and the English words derived from them is available in our Dictionary of Indo-European Roots.

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