platinum

The word traces back to Ancient Greek πλατύς (platús, "flat, broad"), which passed into Vulgar Latin and then Spanish as plata ("silver"). Spanish speakers added -ina to form platina, meaning "little silver," and paired it with del Pinto, after the Pinto River in Gran Colombia where Europeans found Native Americans mining the metal; English later added -um to make platinum.

The name started as a put-down: because the metal turned up as an unwanted impurity in gold, it was dismissed as merely "little silver." That humble label stuck even after platinum's rarity and value became clear.

Platinum is a doublet of platina, the Spanish word it grew from — the two words share the same root but took different paths into English.