Adorable animal families that will make you aww. Gold is a metallic element with the atomic number 79 and the symbol Au. While the name gold comes from an Old English word meaning yellow, the symbol comes from the Latin aurum, which means “shining dawn.”. specialized use is in the powder called gold tin purple, gold tin precipitate, or purple of Cassius, which is used for tinting enamels and manufacturing a special type of glass called ruby glass. Ruby glass is used on the windows of office buildings as well as on mirrors that are used in space.