Silver the periodic table) is useful in nuclear reactors because of its high thermal neutron capture cross-section, good conduction of heat, mechanical stability, and resistance to corrosion in hot water. The word "silver" appears in Anglo-Saxon in various spellings, such as "seolfor" and "siolfor". A similar form is seen throughout the Germanic languages (compare Old High German "silabar" and "silbir"). The chemical symbol Ag is from the Latin word for "silver", "argentum" (compare Ancient Greek ἄργυρος, "árgyros"), from the Proto-Indo-European root *"h₂erǵ-" (formerly reconstructed as "*arǵ-"), meaning "white" or "shining": this was the usual Proto-Indo-European word for the metal, whose reflexes
Silver prevent corrosion and tend to affect the lustre and colour of the alloy. Electrolytically refined pure silver plating is effective at increasing resistance to tarnishing. The usual solutions for restoring the lustre of tarnished silver are dipping baths that reduce the silver sulfide surface to metallic silver, and cleaning off the layer of tarnish with a paste; the latter approach also has the welcome side effect of polishing the silver concurrently. A simple chemical approach to removal of the sulfide tarnish is to bring silver items into contact with aluminium foil whilst immersed in water containing a conducting salt, such