adamantium

English

Etymology

From adamant +‎ -ium (suffix forming humorous- or scientific-sounding fictional substance names).

Pronunciation

• (Received Pronunciation, General American) IPA^(key): /ˌæ.dəˈmæn.tɪ.əm/
• Hyphenation: ada‧mant‧i‧um

Noun

adamantium (uncountable)

1. (fiction, also attributive) A fictional metal which is indestructible or nearly so.

   Synonyms: adamantine, adamantite

   • 1941 June, Malcolm Jameson, “Devil's Powder”, in Astounding Science-Fiction‎^[1], volume 27, number 4, Street & Smith:

     It was a bullet. It was a small slug of adamantium, the toughest and hardest of all metals, crammed to capacity with the terrific explosive feroxite and would burst instantly on any reasonable heavy impact.

   • 1969 July, Roy Thomas, “Betrayal”, in Avengers, volume 1, number 66, Marvel Comics:

     It's imperative that these experiments be concluded with haste! The military must know the potential of this new adamantium at once! Even the President is standing by!

     The first use in a Marvel Comics work.

   • 2004, Neal Asher, Gridlinked, Macmillan, →ISBN, page 324:

     We knew the egg was adamantium. Not much else could have been learnt.

Derived terms

• adamantine (noun) (possibly)

Translations

fictional metal which is indestructible or nearly so

• Japanese: アダマンティウム (adamantiumu)
• Korean: 아다만티움 (adamantium)
• Portuguese: adamantium m
• Russian: адама́нтий m (adamántij)

See also

• (imaginary desirably hard material): unobtainium

Further reading

• adamantium on Wikipedia.Wikipedia

Latin

Participle

adamantium

1. genitive masculine/feminine/neuter plural of adamāns

Portuguese

Etymology

Unadapted borrowing from English adamantium.

Pronunciation

• (Brazil) IPA^(key): /a.daˈmɐ̃.t͡ʃiw̃/ [a.daˈmɐ̃.t͡ʃiʊ̯̃]

• (Portugal) IPA^(key): /ɐ.dɐˈmɐ̃.tiw̃/ [ɐ.ðɐˈmɐ̃.tiw̃]

• Hyphenation: a‧da‧man‧ti‧um

Noun

adamantium m (uncountable)

1. (fiction) adamantium (fictional indestructible metal)