Gold medal, golden retriever

Next month, they will be holding the 28th Olympiad in Athens, the capital of Greece. More than 10,000 athletes from 200 countries will be competing for gold, silver and bronze medals.

A couple of weeks ago, one student asked me about the difference between gold and golden. Why, for example, do we say Olympic Gold Medal but golden retriever? Good question. Let me try to answer it in the next section

When do we say "gold"?

Generally, we use gold before a noun when we are talking about something that is made from the metal we call gold (chemical symbol - Au). For example, we can use it when we talk about gold jewellery: an Olympic gold medal,  a gold necklace, a gold ring.

(Note: It is possible to say golden crown and golden ring, but this sounds very poetic. In everyday conversation, gold crown and gold ring are more frequent).  

We also use gold in these expressions:


• a gold card:  a very special type of credit card, which buys more goods and services than a normal credit card.
• a gold mine: a place where you can dig gold from under the ground.
• a goldsmith: a person who makes things from gold.
• a gold rush: when gold is discovered in a certain place and thousands of people rush there, hoping to get rich (e.g. the California Gold Rush of 1849).

When do we say "golden"?

Golden has two basic meanings.

MEANING ONE: the colour of gold.

•     She has beautiful long golden hair.
•     My uncle's dog is a golden retriever.
•     There are miles of golden beaches along this coast.

MEANING TWO: (something) very special.
Golden can collocate with certain nouns to mean something very special.
Typical examples include:


• The Golden Age: the most important time in the history of a country or cultural movement (e.g. The 1950s and 60s were the golden age of rock and roll).
• The Golden Rule: this is the basic rule of many religions. It is the rule that says "you should treat other people in the same way you would want them to treat you."
• the golden rule of... : this refers to important principles which you should follow if you want to be successful in something (e.g. Alexander Graham Bell's golden rule of learning was "observe, compare and remember").
• golden opportunity: a very special and rare chance to do something wonderful.
• golden wedding: a couple's 50th wedding anniversary.
• golden jubilee: the 50th anniversary of a special event.
• golden handshake: a large sum of money which is given to someone when they leave their job.
• golden boy / girl: a person who has been very successful at something and become very popular (e.g. It seems that Wayne Rooney might replace David Beckham as the new golden boy of British soccer).   
  
• golden oldie: a movie or a song which is quite old but still popular (e.g. White Christmas).
  

Exercise

Use some of the above golden + noun expressions to fill in the blanks below:


1. You've been offered a job by the BBC! Well, don't turn it down. It's a _______.
2. My parents have been married for 49 years, so next year will be their _______.
3. Ai Fukuhara could be called the ________ of Japanese table tennis.
4. My uncle had to retire early through ill health. His company gave him a ________ of £100,000.
5. The Momoyama period (1576-1600) was when a lot of Japanese arts such as noh drama, kabuki and the tea ceremony were developed. Some people call it Japan's _________.
6. Constant practice is one of the ________ of language learning.

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© Robert E. Jones, 2004