Can you guess the odd one out in the following list?

 

 

Copper

Iron

Silver

Cobalt

Platinum

Pumpernickel

Zinc

ANSWER: pumpernickel!

There is a metal called nickel, but pumpernickel is a dense, dark kind of bread from Germany — it’s delicious, but takes a while to chew!

The word ‘pumpernickel’ is actually related to the metal nickel though, and its story might make you laugh. It all goes back to the name ‘Nicholas’, which has had many associations in English, including of course Santa Claus, who is also known as Saint Nicholas. Another use of the name, though, was for the devil, who had the nickname (sorry!) Old Nick — there is a similar word in German, too. And it’s this devilish word that’s behind the name ‘nickel’, because many years ago, whenever miners were searching for ‘copper’, they’d end up finding another metal that they didn’t want because it wasn’t worth anything. And so they called this metal, in German, the kupfernickel or ‘copper demon’, because it was always getting in their way, as though the Devil was playing tricks on them. Over time they simply shortened the word to nickel.

Now you must be wondering where the pumpernickel bread comes into this? Well, the bread is very hard to digest, and it will probably make you quite windy when you eat it. Others thought so too — pumpern means to break wind in German, and so ‘pumpernickel’ really means ‘farting demon’! Tell that to your parents if they ever offer you some.