A confusing example of Noun Modifiers


I have an example of Modification of Nouns in English from a realy valid book.It says there are two types of modifiers:adj. modifiers, and noun modifiers but it gives an example on both sides which is pretty puzzling:


Adjective Modifiers(modifiers are bolded):


He won a gold* medal in the 1000-meter race in the seventeenth winter Olympics.


Noun Modifiers(modifiers are bolded):


He won a gold* medal in the 1000-meter race in the seventeenth winter Olympics.


Then it says,"The word gold can be considered a noun or an adjective, depending on wether it refers to the material or the color."


But after that it indicates that adj. modifiers have 11 types which are colors,material and 9 more.So can anyone tell me why the word gold could be a noun there?




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