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
The Silver Branch (Sutcliff novel) himself Carausius's hound and who wears a dog's tail as part of his motley. Subtle allusions to the silver branch recur in other novels in the Eagle of the Ninth series, and it presumably refers to the otherworldly musical instrument mentioned in the medieval Irish narrative The Voyage of Bran. The Silver Branch was also a symbol of authority and a temporary "pass card" used by the Celts, consisting of a sprig of mistletoe or an apple branch. "The Silver Branch" is #2 in the Roman Britain Series, following "The Eagle of the Ninth" (1954) and preceding "Frontier Wolf" (1980),