means A rare, silvery-white metal (element 46) prized for catalysis, electronics, and jewelry, and notably for its appetite for absorbing hydrogen — though the same name also denotes a sacred safeguard or protective talisman.

from Named after the asteroid Pallas, discovered just a year before the metal was identified in the early 1800s — and Pallas itself honors Pallas Athena, the Greek goddess of wisdom and war. The older sense of 'palladium' as a protective safeguard comes from the Palladium, the legendary statue of Athena said to guard the city of Troy: while it stood, Troy could not fall. From Greek 'Palladion,' the image of Pallas.