the.com/silver medal
Proof you lost the final, told in a shiny participation trophy.
means The second-place award in a competition, given to the runner-up behind the gold-medal winner.
from From 'silver,' the precious metal long used for coinage and ornament, ranked second in value and prestige to gold. The modern medal hierarchy of gold-silver-bronze was formalized with the revival of the Olympic Games in the late 19th century; earlier Olympic revivals and some early modern Games actually gave silver for first place and bronze for second, with gold only becoming the standard top prize around 1904. The association of silver with 'close but not quite' is really a side effect of gold simply outranking it in rarity and value.
- psychology
- silver medalists often rank less happy than bronze winners
- reason why
- silver means almost gold, bronze means almost nothing
- etymology
- from Latin argentum, also root of money itself
- olympic origin
- gold only became top prize starting in 1904