The metal that builds skyscrapers, runs in your blood, and dies inside stars.
means A hard, magnetic metallic element (symbol Fe) that is one of the most common metals on Earth, used to make tools, steel, and structures, and also vital in the body for carrying oxygen in blood.
from From Old English 'īren' (also 'īsern'), part of a wide Germanic family alongside German 'Eisen' and Dutch 'ijzer'. These all trace back to a Proto-Germanic root 'īsarną', which is possibly an early borrowing from Celtic 'īsarnom' — a word some link to a root meaning 'strong' or 'holy', though the deeper origin is genuinely uncertain. The chemical symbol Fe, by contrast, comes from a completely separate Latin word, 'ferrum', whose own roots are murky and possibly Semitic.