'Steel' is Proto-Germanic *stahljo — ancient smiths named the alloy a millennium before understanding its chemistry.
A hard, strong alloy of iron with carbon and usually other elements, used extensively as a structural and fabricating material.
From Old English 'stȳle, stēle' (steel), from Proto-Germanic *stahlją (steel), from PIE *stek- (to be stiff, firm, rigid). The PIE root *stek- also underlies the idea of standing firm and upright, capturing the defining metallurgical property of steel over iron: its resistance to deformation. Proto-Germanic *stahlją passed into all the major Germanic languages — Old High
Ancient smiths did not understand the chemistry of steel — they could not know that carbon atoms were migrating into an iron lattice. Yet through centuries of empirical craft, they discovered that heating iron in charcoal and quenching it in water produced a superior metal. The word 'steel' predates any understanding of what steel actually is by over