Etymological list of chemical elements

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A large number of chemical elements are named after cities, countries or continents. Some reveal the origin of their discoverers (e.g. Scandium and Francium ) or eminent natural scientists are honored with the designation (e.g. Einsteinium , Curium and Mendelevium ).

Still other elements have retained their original names (e.g. gold and iron ), but are referred to with Latin abbreviations (Au and Fe).

If an element is newly discovered or created, it is given a provisional systematic element name until the discoverers or producers, who are entitled to the naming rights, have agreed on an internationally recognized definitive name.

A.

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Actinium Ac 89 The name of the element Actinium is the Latinized form of the Greek word ακτίνα (aktína = ray).
aluminum Al 13 Aluminum takes its name from the Latin word alumen (= alum ). It was discovered and named by Sir Humphry Davy in 1808 .
Americium At the 95 Aside from europium , americium is the only element named after a continent. In the periodic table it is exactly under europium. It was discovered in 1944 by Glenn T. Seaborg , Ralph A. James , Stanley G. Thompson, and Albert Ghiorso .
antimony Sb 51 The word antimony probably comes from Arabic إثمد, DMG iṯmid , the symbol from the Latin stibium (= gray shine). Antimony was already used as an additive to copper in the Bronze Age to produce bronze . In the 17th century the name antimony was used as a name for the metal. The Coptic name for the make-up powder antimony sulfide went over from the Greek to the Latin stibium . The abbreviation Sb used by Jöns Jakob Berzelius is still used today as an element symbol .

This derivation is not entirely certain. There are other guesses as to the origin of the element name. The unusual name goes back to the late Greek anthemon (= flower). This is to describe the stem-like crystals, which are arranged in clusters and look like a flower.

argon Ar 18th Argon gets its name from the Greek word αργό (ν) [argon] - the inert element - because of its chemical inertness. Argon was discovered by Lord Rayleigh and Sir William Ramsay in 1894. With the ending -on typical for noble gases .
arsenic As 33 The name arsenic goes back directly to the Greek arsenikón (αρσενικόν), the name of the arsenic mineral auripigment . It can already be found in Dioscurides in the 1st century. The Greek name for its part seems to have its origin in Middle Persian al-zarnik (= gold-colored) and probably got into Greek through Semitic mediation. Folk etymologically, the name was erroneously derived from the Greek word arsenikós, which can be translated as masculine / strong. The name arsenic has only been in use since the 19th century. The element symbol was proposed by Jöns Jakob Berzelius in 1814.
Astatine At 85 Astatine (ancient Greek ἀστατέω = inconsistent, because of the radioactive decay of astatine) was first artificially produced in 1940 by Dale Corson , Kenneth MacKenzie and Emilio Segrè at the University of California, Berkeley , by bombarding bismuth with alpha particles.

B.

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barium Ba 56 Barium was named after the mineral baryte (barite, from Greek βαρύς: "heavy", because of its high density ), which consists of barium sulfate.
Berkelium Bk 97 Berkelium was named after the city of Berkeley , California, where it was found at the University of California, Berkeley in 1949 .
beryllium Be 4th Beryllium (from the Greek βήρυλλος = beryl , a gemstone that contains beryllium) was represented in 1798 by Louis-Nicolas Vauquelin in the form of its oxide from the gemstones beryl and emerald . In 1828 Friedrich Wöhler and Antoine Bussy succeeded in reducing beryllium chloride with potassium to form metallic beryllium.

Because of the sweet taste of the beryllium salts , the term glucinium was used in France for the fourth element until 1957 .

Bismuth Bi 83 The element bismuth has probably been known since ancient times . The name bismuth has been known since 1472 and probably goes back to the first place of extraction "in the meadows" on the Schneeberg in the Ore Mountains . However, there are also other etymologies , for example of “white”. Georgius Agricola used the Latinized name bismutum , from which the current name goes back.
lead Pb 82 The name lead (Latin plumbum, from plumbeus: lead, blunt, lead heavy) is of Indo-European origin and means something like "shimmering", "shining" or "shiny".
Bohrium Bra 107 Bohrium was first produced in 1977 by a Soviet research group headed by Y. Oganessian at the Institute for Nuclear Research near Dubna . It was named after Niels Bohr .
boron B. 5 Boron got its name from the mineral borax (from Persian بوره, bura h via arabic بورق Būraq and Latin borax ), which consists of sodium borate.
bromine Br 35 Because of its pungent smell, Joseph Louis Gay-Lussac suggested the name bromine (from ancient Greek βρῶμος (brómos) = stench , because of the pungent smell of bromine fumes).

C.

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cadmium CD 48 The word cadmium (also cadmium) is a neo-Latin formation from Latin cadmea or cadmia, which is derived from the ancient Greek word kadmía = zinc ore, which in turn is named after the mythological figure cadmos .
Cesium Cs 55 Cesium was first detected in 1860 together with rubidium by the German chemist Robert Wilhelm Bunsen and the German physicist Gustav Robert Kirchhoff , the inventors of spectral analysis , in Dürkheim mineral water. The name cesium is derived from the Latin caesius , which means "sky blue". The name refers to the typical spectral lines of the cesium, which lie in the blue area and was assigned by Bunsen / Kirchhoff in 1861.
Calcium Approx 20th The element name is derived from the Latin calx . This is how the Romans called limestone, chalk and mortar made from them. Metallic calcium was obtained by Sir Humphry Davy in 1808 by evaporating the mercury from electrolytically obtained calcium amalgam .
Californium Cf 98 Californium is a transuranic and was first produced at the University of California, Berkeley by Stanley Thompson, Kenneth Street Jr., Albert Ghiorso, and Glenn T. Seaborg .
cerium Ce 58 Cer was discovered in 1803 by Jöns Jacob Berzelius and Wilhelm von Hisinger and at the same time by Martin Heinrich Klaproth and named after the planetoid Ceres .
chlorine Cl 17th Chlorine (from Greek χλωρός (chlorós) = yellowish green, because of the yellow-green color of chlorine gas)
chrome Cr 24 Chromium (from the Greek χρώμα chroma = color; chromium salts can have many different colors and are often used as pigments in paints and varnishes).
Cobalt Co 27 The name cobalt is derived from "goblin" because goblins used to contaminate ores with this (then) unworkable mineral. In 1735 the Swedish chemist Georg Brandt discovered the previously unknown element and gave it its name. The symbol Co is derived from the Latin name cobaltum .
Copernicium Cn 112 Copernicium is a man-made element, the name was chosen in honor of Nicolaus Copernicus . It was first produced in 1996 and the name was confirmed by IUPAC in 2010.
Curium Cm 96 Curium was named after the researchers Marie Curie and Pierre Curie .

D.

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Darmstadtium Ds 110 The element was named after the city of Darmstadt , the seat of the Society for Heavy Ion Research (GSI), where it was first produced.
Dubnium Db 105 Dubnium was discovered in 1967 at the Nuclear Research Institute ( United Institute for Nuclear Research ) at Dubna (GN Flerow et al.) And at the University of California, Berkeley (A. Ghiorso et al.).

Like all transactinoids , Dubnium is artificially produced exclusively by particle bombardment. The Russian working group was working there with the bombardment of americium with neon cores and suggested for the name Nielsbohrium before, during the American californium or Berkelium with nitrogen - or oxygen kernels shelled and his name Hahnium was. After an element naming controversy , it was named " Dubna " (Russian: Дубна) in 1997 after the Russian nuclear research center. Other names that were used at times for this element were: Unnilpentium (after the ordinal number 105), Hahnium (after Otto Hahn ), Joliotium (after Irène and Frédéric Joliot-Curie ), Nielsbohrium (after Niels Bohr ), Eka-Tantalum .

Dysprosium Dy 66 The silver-gray heavy metal dysprosium takes its name from the Greek adjective δυσπρόσιτος (dysprósitos), which means something like inaccessible or difficult to obtain.

E.

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Einsteinium It 99 Einsteinium was named in honor of Albert Einstein . It was not specifically produced in the laboratory, but discovered in the mushroom cloud after the test of the first American hydrogen bomb, Ivy Mike, on November 1, 1952 on Bikini Atoll . For reasons of military secrecy, the results were only published 3 years later in 1955, the year Einstein died.
iron Fe 26th The oldest human use of iron (lat. Ferrum) comes from Sumer and Egypt , around 4000 BC. It was solid iron from meteorites , and was used for decoration or as a spearhead.
Erbium He 68 The name is derived from the Ytterby mine near Stockholm , as well as that of ytterbium , terbium and yttrium . Erbium was discovered by Carl Gustav Mosander in 1843 .
Europium Eu 63 Only europium and americium are elements named after continents . The name stands for the continent of Europe . Paul Émile Lecoq de Boisbaudran discovered unknown spectral lines in a samarium-gadolinium concentrate in 1890. The discovery of the element is awarded to Eugene Anatole Demarcay , who in 1896 suspected another element in the samarium that had just been discovered.

F.

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Fermium Fm 100 Fermium was named after Enrico Fermi . It was discovered while testing the first American hydrogen bomb, Ivy Mike, on November 1, 1952.
Flerovium Fl 114 Flerovium was named after Georgi Nikolajewitsch Fljorow the head of the United Institute for Nuclear Research near Dubna ( Russia ).
fluorine F. 9 The name fluorine is derived from the Latin fluor (= flowing) from fluorspar, the most important mineral that contains fluorine.
Francium Fr. 87 Francium was detected by Marguerite Perey in 1939 as a decay product of Actinium-227. It was initially called Actinium-K and renamed Francium (from French France = France , the discoverer's fatherland) in 1946 . The name was accepted by the International Association of Chemists in 1949.

G

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Gadolinium Gd 64 The first element of the ytter earth in the periodic table was found spectroscopically in 1880 by Jean Charles Galissard de Marignac in didymium and gadolinite . In 1886 he made it as a white oxide from Sarmaskit and named it Y from Sarmaskit. In the same year Paul Émile Lecoq de Boisbaudran also produced gadolinium oxide and named the new element gadolinium after the discoverer of the mineral gadolinite , the Finnish chemist Johan Gadolin .
gallium Ga 31 Gallium was discovered by Paul Émile Lecoq de Boisbaudran in 1875 . He named it after Gaul , the Latin name of his native France.
Germanium Ge 32 Germanium (from Latin Germania " Germany ", the fatherland of the discoverer Clemens Winkler (1838–1904)) is a chemical element . It was first detected on February 6, 1886.
gold Au 79 Gold (from Indo-European ghel : shiny, ( yellow )) is a chemical element and a so-called precious metal , the chemical abbreviation Au for gold is derived from the Latin name Aurum .

H

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hafnium Hf 72 Hafnium (lat. Hafnia for Copenhagen ) was discovered in Copenhagen in 1923 by Dirk Coster and George de Hevesy .
Hassium Hs 108 Hassium was first produced in 1984 at the Society for Heavy Ion Research ( GSI ) in Darmstadt by fusing lead with iron. The 1994 IUPAC recommendation (see element naming controversy ) for the name was Hahnium (after Otto Hahn ). Since 1997 it has had its current name, which is derived from the Latin name Hassia for the state of Hesse .
helium Hey 2 Helium - the name comes from the ancient Greek word ἥλιος (hélios) = sun - is the second lightest chemical element and was first detected in 1868 based on never-before-seen spectral lines in the light of the sun. It is therefore the only element that was not first discovered on earth.
It was assumed that the element, like the cause of some other spectral lines, is a metal and named it helium with the usual ending -ium for metals . When it was later found materially on earth and recognized as a noble gas , its name helium had already established itself and was no longer replaced by helion . However, all other noble gases have the typical ending -on .
holmium Ho 67 In 1878 the Swiss chemists Marc Delafontaine and Jacques-Louis Soret discovered the element spectroscopically through its deviating absorption lines. They called the new element 'X'. In 1879 the Swedish chemist Per Teodor Cleve discovered the new element independently of the two Swiss people and isolated it as a yellow oxide from impure erbium (erbium oxide). Cleve used a method developed by Mosander ; it first separated off any known impurities before attempting to separate the rest. He received a brown residue, which he named Holmia, and a green residue, which was named Thulia.
It was not until 1911 that the Swedish chemist Holmberg succeeded in obtaining pure holmium oxide . It is not known whether he adopted the name Holmium, suggested by Cleve for the Swedish capital Stockholm , or regarded it as a derivative of his own name.

I.

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Indium In 49 Indium was named after the indigo- colored band in the line spectrum . It was discovered in 1863/1864 by Ferdinand Reich in collaboration with Hieronymus Theodor Richter .
Iodine I. 53 Iodine (from the ancient Greek word ἰο-ειδής = violet-colored, because of the purple color of iodine vapors). Iodine was first extracted from the ashes of seaweed in 1811 by the Parisian saltpetre boiler Bernard Courtois in the manufacture of gunpowder . However, it was not until 1813 that the French scientists Nicolas Clement-Desormes and Joseph Louis Gay-Lussac explored the elementary character , who gave it its current name a year later.
iridium Ir 77 Iridium (Greek ίρις iris for rainbow) was discovered in 1803 in London by Smithson Tennant together with osmium . When a raw platinum was dissolved in aqua regia , both platinum metals were found in the insoluble black residue. The high color strength of the iridium salts inspired Tennant to use the name Iridium.

K

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potassium K 19th Potassium, (from Kali from Arabic القلية, DMG al-qalya  'plant ash'). On November 19, 1807, Humphry Davy reported that he had succeeded in obtaining two different metals by electrolysis of weakly humidified caustic alkalis; He called one metal sodium (this is still the French and English name for sodium today) because it is contained in soda, the other potassium (now the English and French name for potassium) because it can be extracted from potash . In the German-speaking area, Sodium Davys has been referred to as sodium since 1811 according to a proposal by Jöns Jakob Berzelius , while the expression potassium, introduced by Martin Heinrich Klaproth in 1796, was adopted for Potassium Davys .
carbon C. 6th Carbon (from Latin carbo = charcoal and Latin carbonium = carbon). The name carbon is old German : kulo (n) = "coal".
krypton Kr 36 Krypton (Greek krypton for hidden, κρυπτός = hidden) was discovered in 1898 by William Ramsay and Morris William Travers in the "residue" of evaporated air.
copper Cu 29 Copper (from Latin cuprum via Greek Κύπρος, the name of the island of Cyprus , where the metal was extracted in ancient times).

L.

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Lanthanum La 57 Lanthanum (Greek λανθάνειν lanthanein = hidden) was discovered by Carl Gustav Mosander in 1839 .
lawrencium Lr 103 This element was named after Ernest Lawrence , the inventor of the cyclotron , a particle accelerator that was an important prerequisite for the discovery of many transuranic elements .
lithium Li 3 It was discovered by Johan August Arfwedson in 1817 . The name comes from the ancient Greek word lithos ( ancient Greek λίθος = stone, since lithium was first detected in the rock).
Livermorium Lv 116 This item has been after the city Livermore ( California ), the location of the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory , named one of the institutions that has discovered this element.
lutetium Lu 71 Lutetium was discovered in 1905 by three scientists independently of one another: Carl Auer von Welsbach , Charles James and the French Georges Urbain , who named it after the Roman name of Paris , Lutetia . In the German-speaking area it was mostly referred to as Cassiopeium (chemical symbol Cp) until 1949.

M.

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magnesium Mg 12 The origin of the element name is presented differently in the literature: 1. from ancient Greek. μαγνῆτις λίθος meaning magnetic stone, 2. from Magnesia , an area in eastern Greece and 3. from Magnesia , a city in Asia Minor, on the area of ​​today's Turkey.
manganese Mn 25th Manganese comes from the French word manganèse (= black magnesia).
Meitnerium Mt 109 Meitnerium, which is named after the Austrian-Swedish physicist and mathematician Lise Meitner , was first produced in 1982 at the Society for Heavy Ion Research in Darmstadt. Until the current naming in 1997, it was initially given the provisional name Unnilennium (symbol Une) , given by the ordinal number .
Mendelevium Md 101 Mendelevium is a Transuran and was first created in 1955 at the University of California at Berkeley by Stanley Thompson, Albert Ghiorso , Bernard Harvey, Gregory Choppin, and Glenn T. Seaborg . It was named after the Russian chemist and "inventor" of the periodic table, Dmitri Mendeleev .
molybdenum Mon 42 Molybdenum, from the Greek μόλυβδος molybdos for lead, which is usually found in deposits as molybdenum luster (molybdenum disulfide), was confused for a long time with lead luster or graphite. In 1778 Carl Wilhelm Scheele succeeded in producing white molybdenum (VI) oxide (molybdenum trioxide, MoO 3 , water lead earth) from molybdenum luster by treating it with nitric acid . In 1782 Peter Jacob Hjelm reduced the oxide to elemental molybdenum with coal .
Moscovium Mc 115 Moscovium, after the city of Moscow . The JINR , where the element was discovered, is located in Dubna near Moscow .

N

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sodium N / A 11 Sodium from Egypt. netjer = soda from Arabic نطرون, DMG naṭrūn= Baking soda, as sodium is the main component of baking soda. Outdated English-French name: Sodium , linguistically related to German Soda for sodium carbonate.
Neodymium Nd 60 Neodymium, together with praseodymium in 1885 by Carl F. Auer of Welsbach from that of Mosander discovered didymium isolated. Pure metallic neodymium was not presented until 1925. The element name is derived from the Greek words νέος neos for new and δίδυμος didymos for twin.
neon No 10 Neon (from ancient Greek νέος = new). Neon (Greek neos for new) was discovered by Sir William Ramsay and Morris William Travers in 1898 . With the ending -on, which is typical for noble gases .
neptunium Np 93 Neptunium was named after the planet Neptune , which succeeds the planet Uranus . Neptunium follows in the periodic table on uranium , followed by plutonium .
nickel Ni 28 Similar to cobalt , a word for evil spirits was given its name; the worthless nickel was often confused with silver and then people believed they had been betrayed by the evil mountain spirit "nickel".
Nihonium Nh 113 Nihonium is named after Japan (Japanese "Nihon"). The other possible transcription of the Japanese name (Nippon) was not chosen because the name "Nipponium" had already been proposed for element 43 ( technetium ) in 1909 .
niobium Nb 41 Niobium is named after Niobe , the daughter of Tantalus . Niobium was discovered by Charles Hatchett in 1801 . Hatchett found niobium in columbite ore and initially named the element columbite. In 1844, the Berlin professor Heinrich Rose rediscovered the element. Due to his ignorance that this element was already named and because of its similarity to tantalum , he named it after Niobe, the daughter of tantalum. Only after 100 years of controversial disputes did the International Union of Pure and Applied Chemistry (IUPAC) establish niobium as the official name of the 41st element of the PSE in 1950.
Nobelium No 102 Nobelium is a relatively short-lived radioactive chemical element with the atomic number 102. It was named after Alfred Nobel . It was first produced in 1957 by bombarding curium atomic nuclei with nuclei of carbon atoms .

O

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Oganesson Above 118 Oganesson after Juri Zolakowitsch Oganessian , in recognition of his work on the heaviest elements. The ending -on is chosen in accordance with the IUPAC specifications for naming the elements of the 18th group.
osmium Os 76 Osmium (Greek οσμή osme for odor) was discovered in 1803 by Smithson Tennant together with iridium in the residue of platinum dissolved in aqua regia . The element owes its name to its radish-like smell.

P

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palladium Pd 46 Palladium was discovered by William Hyde Wollaston in 1803 . He named it in 1804 after the asteroid Pallas discovered two years earlier .
phosphorus P 15th Phosphorus (from the Greek φως-φορος = light-bearing, from the glow of white phosphorus). Phosphorus was discovered in 1669 by Hennig Brand , a German pharmacist and alchemist , when he - in search of the " Philosopher's Stone " - distilled urine and the residue glowed.
platinum Pt 78 Platinum was used by the Indians of South America even before Columbus discovered America. The name is derived from the Spanish word platina , the diminutive of plata "silver".
plutonium Pooh 94 Plutonium was named after the dwarf planet Pluto , which succeeds the planet Neptune , which in turn succeeds the planet Uranus . (Plutonium follows neptunium in the periodic table , and this in turn follows uranium ).
polonium Po 84 Polonium was discovered by Marie and Pierre Curie in 1898. Marie Curie gave the element its name in honor of her native Poland .
Praseodymium Pr 59 (from Greek πράσινο δίδυμο prasino didymo = "green twin". The Greek word prásinos means leek green, didymos double or twin). Chemical compounds of this element turn green.

In 1841 Mosander extracted the rare earth didymium from lanthanum oxide . In 1874, Per Teodor Cleve noticed that there were actually two elements. In 1879 Lecoq de Boisbaudran isolated samarium from Didym, which he extracted from the mineral samarskite . In 1885 Carl Auer von Welsbach succeeded in separating didymium into praseodymium and neodymium , which both form salts with different colors.

promethium Pm 61 Promethium (from the titan of Greek mythology Prometheus ). It was discovered in 1945 at the Oak Ridge National Laboratory by Jack Marinsky , Lawrence E. Glendenin , and Charles D. Coryell as a fission product of uranium . They chose the name Promethium based on the Greek titan Prometheus, who brought fire to humans and thus aroused the wrath of the gods. This was intended as a warning to humankind, who at that point were beginning the nuclear arms race .
Protactinium Pa 91 234 Pa was discovered in 1913 by Kasimir Fajans and Oswald Helmuth Göhring . They named it "Brevium" because of its short half-life (1.14 minutes). The long-lived 231 Pa (approx. 32,000 years) was found in 1918 by Otto Hahn and Lise Meitner . They called it protactinium, because it is the chemical element that precedes actinium in the decay series of uranium-235 (protactinium is shortened from the original proto-actinium from Greek πρώτος (prõtos) = first and actinium ).

Q

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mercury Ed 80 "Mercury" originally means "living silver" ( Old High German quecsilbar to Germanic kwikw = living ): Due to its high surface tension, mercury does not wet its substrate, but rather forms flattened individual droplets ( cohesion ). The chemical symbol of mercury is Hg. This is the abbreviation for hydrargyrum , composed of the word components χυδρ- hydr- and αργυρών argyron , which can be translated from the Greek as "liquid silver".

R.

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radium Ra 88 Radium (from Latin radius = ray); discovered by Marie and Pierre Curie on December 26, 1898, shortly after they discovered polonium.
radon Marg 86 Radon (from lat. Radius = beam, because of its radioactivity). Radon was first discovered in 1900 by Friedrich Ernst Dorn ; he called it "Radium Emanation" ("coming out of radium"). In 1908, William Ramsay and Robert Whytlaw-Gray isolated a sufficient amount of the gas to determine its density; they called it niton , after the Latin nitens , meaning shining. The term radon has been in use since 1923. With the ending -on, which is typical for noble gases .
rhenium re 75 Rhenium (Latin for Rhenus for Rhine ) was the last chemical element to be discovered that was not radioactive . In 1925 Walter Noddack , Ida Tacke , and Otto Berg reported on the detection of rhenium in platinum ore and niobite, as well as in gadolinite and molybdenite.
Rhodium Rh 45 Rhodium (Greek ρόδων rhodon for rose, since many chemical compounds of rhodium show a red color) was discovered in 1803 by William Hyde Wollaston in a raw platinum ore from South America.
Roentgenium Rg 111 First Roentgenium was given the provisional name "Unununium", which denotes the three ones of the ordinal number. On May 18, 2004, the Society for Heavy Ion Research (GSI) near Darmstadt proposed that it be named after the German physicist Wilhelm Conrad Röntgen . The official designation by the IUPAC took place on November 1, 2004, but - to commemorate Röntgen's discovery of the "X-rays" on November 8, 1895 - was not announced to the public until November 8.
Rubidium Rb 37 Rubidium ( Latin rubidus for deep red, because of two characteristic red spectral lines ) was discovered spectroscopically in Bad Dürkheim mineral water by Robert Bunsen and Gustav Kirchhoff in 1861 .
Ruthenium Ru 44 Ruthenium (from Ruthenia , Latin for Russia ) was discovered and isolated by Karl Ernst Claus in 1844 . He showed that the residue of raw platinum, which was insoluble in aqua regia, contained a compound of a new element. Jöns Jakob Berzelius and Gottfried Osann discovered ruthenium as early as 1827. They too dissolved raw platinum in aqua regia and examined the insoluble residue. While Berzelius did not find any unusual metal, Osann was convinced that he had found three new metals. He named one of them ruthenium. Likewise, the Polish chemist Jędrzej Śniadecki could have extracted element 44, which he called vestium , from platinum ore in 1807. But his work was never confirmed. He later withdrew his claim to the discovery of a new element.
Rutherfordium Rf 104 The element was discovered in 1964 at the nuclear research center near Dubna ( Soviet Union ) after bombarding plutonium with neon nuclei . After discovering there was a Elementnamensgebungskontroverse and only in 1997 it was decided there to Ernest Rutherford Rutherfordium to name. Another name that was used for this element at times, and still appears in some older tables, is Kurchatovium (Ku, after Igor Wassiljewitsch Kurchatow ).

S.

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Samarium Sm 62 There are several representations in the literature for the discovery of the samarium: 1. In 1853 the Swiss Jean Charles Galissard de Marignac detected samarium spectroscopically using a sharp absorption line in didymium oxide . In 1879, the Frenchman Paul Émile Lecoq de Boisbaudran isolated the element from the mineral samarskite ((Y, Ce, U, Fe) 3 (Nb, Ta, Ti) 5 O 16 ). Mineral and element names are derived from the Russian mining inspector (mining official) Colonel Samarsky, who discovered the mineral. 2. In 1878, the Swiss chemist Marc Delafontaine discovered samarium, which he called decipum, in didymium oxide. In 1879, Paul Emile Lecoq de Boisbaudran discovered the samarium independently. In 1881 Delafontaine shows that his isolated element contains another element besides samarium.
oxygen O 8th Oxygen (also Oxygenium; from the Greek οξύς oxýs “sharp, pointed, sour” and γενέσε genesis “generate”). In the past, oxygen was held responsible for the formation of acids . In fact, most arise inorganic acids in the solution of non-metal oxides in water , which consists of hydrogen is and oxygen. It was only later recognized that it was not oxygen but hydrogen that was responsible for the acidic character; Hydrochloric acid is proof of this ; even as a gas, it is an acid and consists of the combination of chlorine with hydrogen and contains no oxygen. The oxygen should actually be called hydrogen and the hydrogen oxygen.
Scandium Sc 21st Scandium (lat. Scandia for Scandinavia) was discovered by Lars Fredrik Nilson in 1879 . From 10 kg of euxenite and gadolinite , he isolated an oxide with previously unknown properties. He named the new element he suspected scandium in honor of his homeland. As early as 1869, Dmitri Ivanovich Mendeleev predicted an element Eka-Bor with the ordinal number 21. Only Per Teodor Cleve later recognized the identity of the scandium with the eka-boron.
sulfur S. 16 Sulfur (chemically named after the Latin Sulfur or Sulfur, in German possibly derived from Indo-European * suel- “smoldering”).
Seaborgium Sg 106 Seaborgium was first produced in 1974, at about the same time in the nuclear research center near Dubna ( Soviet Union ) and at the University of California, Berkeley . After the element naming controversy , it has had the current name since 1997 in honor of the American chemist Glenn T. Seaborg , which replaces the temporary Unnilhexium (symbol Unh) given by the ordinal number .
selenium Se 34 Selenium - named after the Greek moon goddess Selene - was discovered in 1817 by Jöns Jacob Berzelius in the lead chamber sludge of a sulfuric acid factory , which contained tellurium (from the Latin tellus for earth ) in addition to selenium . He called it selenium (moon) to indicate the similarity to tellurium (earth).
silver Ag 47 The element symbol Ag is derived from the Latin word argentum = silver. It is the only element that gives a country its name ( Argentina ), while the reverse is more common. The German word silver is common Germanic; related words can also be found in Baltic and Slavic languages.
Silicon Si 14th Silicon (not IUPAC- compliant, but is also often used: silicon): In 1811, the chemist Joseph Louis Gay-Lussac and the French nobleman Baron Louis Jacques Thénard (cf. Thénards Blau ) probably presented impure and amorphous silicon by reacting silicon tetrafluoride with elemental potassium . A similar procedure was followed in 1824 by Jöns Jakob Berzelius in Sweden by converting a hexafluorosilicate with elemental potassium . Berzelius cleaned the amorphous silicon obtained in this way by washing, was the first to recognize the elemental nature of silicon and also gave it his name.
The term silicon is derived from the Latin word silex (pebble, flint ). It expresses that silicon is a common component of many minerals . In fact, with a share of about 26 percent by weight, silicon is the second most abundant element in the earth's crust after oxygen and before aluminum . The English term silicon was proposed in 1831 by the Englishman Thomas Thomson . The ending -on will be given to chemical affinity for carbon ( carbon ) point.
nitrogen N 7th The element symbol N is derived from the Latin name nitrogenium (from ancient Greek νίτρον "lye salt" and ancient Greek γένος "origin"). The German term nitrogen is a reminder that molecular nitrogen extinguishes (“suffocates”) flames.
strontium Sr 38 Adair Crawford recognized in 1790 that the mineral strontianite , named after the Scottish town of Strontian , was to be distinguished from other minerals.

T

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bol		 Properly
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number		 etymology
Tantalum Ta 73 Tantalum ( Tantalos , Greek mythology) was discovered in Sweden in 1802 by Anders Gustaf Ekeberg from Finnish minerals in the form of its oxide and represented elementarily in 1815 by JJ Berzelius by reducing the fluoride with potassium . For a long time niobium and tantalum were thought to be identical. Heinrich Rose was not able to show the different behavior of niobium and tantalic acid until 1844 .
It got its name based on Greek mythology, because it "has to languish under the acid and cannot quench its thirst, like Tantalos in the underworld". (Because Ta 2 O 5 does not form salts with acids.)
Technetium Tc 43 Technetium was the first artificially produced element and therefore got its name derived from the Greek word for "artificial", τεχνητός tekhnetos. For many years there was a gap between the elements molybdenum and ruthenium in the periodic table of the elements proposed by the Russian chemist Dmitri Mendeleev , indicating a previously unidentified element. Mendeleev himself gave it the name Eka-Mangan and, with good approximation, predicted its mass, among other things. The first supposed trace emerged in 1828. The element was given the name Polinium ; however, it soon turned out that the find was impure iridium . In 1846, ilmenium was found, believed to be the missing element; this time it was impure niobium . In 1847 the mistake was repeated with the "discovery" of Pelopium . In 1877, the Russian chemist reported Serge core discovering the missing element in platinum ore and gave the supposed element of the English chemist Sir Humphry Davy named Davyum . However, the find turned out to be a mixture of iridium , rhodium and iron . Another supposed discovery was made in 1896 with Lucium , but it was yttrium . Finally, the Japanese chemist Masataka Ogawa concluded from an analysis of a mineral that there was nipponium (named after Nippon , the Japanese word for Japan ), which he believed to be the element with atomic number 43. Later analyzes indicated rhenium instead . The German chemists Walter Noddack , Otto Berg and Ida Tacke reported on the discovery of element 43 in 1925 and gave it the name Masurium , derived from Masuria , the home of Walter Noddack. The group at the Physikalische Reichsanstalt Berlin bombarded the mineral columbite with an electron beam and concluded from the X-ray spectra that element 43 was present. However, the signal observed was close to the detection limit and could not be reproduced by other working groups at the time. A preparative pure representation - in accordance with Mattauch's isobar rule - was not successful . The discovery was therefore not recognized. However, in 1998 the rejection was questioned. John T. Armstrong from the US National Institute of Standards and Technology simulated the experiments with a computer and came to results comparable to those of Noddack, Berg and Tacke. Support came from a work by David Curtis of Los Alamos National Laboratory , who demonstrated the very low natural occurrence of technetium using the methods of Noddack, Berg, and Tacke. The debate about the controversial first discovery is therefore open again. In 1937, 66 years after Dmitri Mendeleev predicted many of the properties of technetium, the element was finally proven in an undisputed manner. Emilio Segrè and Carlo Perrier , both working at the University of Palermo , isolated the new element from a molybdenum foil bombed with deuterons , which Segrè had received at the beginning of the year from Ernest Lawrence of the University of California, Berkeley , USA: Deuterons put molybdenum under Neutron emission to technetium. Segrè and Perrier named the first artificially manufactured element after the Greek word tekhnetos for "artificial" as technetium and did not respond to requests from those responsible at the University of Palermo, who instead suggested the name Panormium after the Latin word for Palermo, Panormus .
Tellurium Te 52 Tellurium (Latin tellus for earth) was discovered in 1782 by Franz Joseph Müller von Reichenstein (1740–1825) in Transylvania , Romania . During the investigation of gold tellurite (aurum problematicum) von Reichenstein isolated a tellurium compound.
Tenness Ts 117 Tenness is named after Tennessee. Various scientific institutions are located there, including the ORNL , which contributed to the discovery of the element. The English name “Tennessine” has the ending “-ine” according to the specifications of the IUPAC for names of the 17th group of the periodic table (halogens); the ending is omitted for the German name. The element symbol "Ts" was chosen despite the name conflict with a common designation of the tosylate residue , because the element symbol "Tn" had historically already been assigned to Thoron .
Terbium Tb 65 The discovery of the element terbium is very confused and has not yet been clarified. Generally one sees Carl Gustav Mosander as explorers, the beginning of the 1840s by Johan Gadolin discovered yttria examined. The supposedly pure terbium compound was a mixture of several lanthanoids (Bunsen). Pure terbium was only produced after 1945 with the advent of ion exchange technology. Mosander derived the element designation from the name of the Swedish mine Ytterby .
Thallium Tl 81 Thallium ( ancient Greek θαλλός = green shoot or green shoot, because of its green flame color ) was discovered in England in 1861 by Sir William Crookes spectroscopically in the lead chamber sludge of a sulfuric acid factory based on the characteristic green spectral line (at 535 nm). At the same time, the Frenchman Auguste Lamy succeeded in making the metal electrolytically.
Thorium Th 90 Thorium is named after the Germanic god Thor.
Thulium Tm 69 Thulium (after Thule , the mythical name for Scandinavia) was discovered in 1879 by the Swedish chemist Per Teodor Cleve together with holmium in Erbia (erbium oxide) (see history of Holmium ).
titanium Ti 22nd Titanium was noticed in 1791 in England by the clergyman and amateur chemist William Gregor in the ilmenite . Several years later, the German chemist Heinrich Klapproth rediscovered it in rutile ore . In 1795 he named the new element titanium, from titanium (mythology) , because of its high strength.

U

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uranium U 92 Uranium was isolated from the mineral pitchblende in 1789 by the German chemistry professor and pharmacist Martin Heinrich Klaproth (1743 to 1817) living in Berlin . It is named after the planet Uranus , which was discovered eight years earlier (1781) by Friedrich Wilhelm Herschel (1738 to 1822). On September 24, 1789, he announced the discovery in a speech to the Prussian Academy of Sciences . His discovery was first called uranite , then renamed uranium in 1790 . Klaproth made his discovery while analyzing the ore from the "George Wagsfort" mine in Wittigsthal near Johanngeorgenstadt in Saxony . He treated the ore with acid and heated it strongly. The result was a black powder he called uranium. Uranus is the Latinized form of the Greek word Ουρανός ouranos = heaven.

V

Surname symbol Nuclear charge number etymology
Vanadium V 23 Vanadium, also: Vanadin (from old north: Vanadis [name of the Germanic goddess of beauty Freya ; after the colorful appearance of some V-connections]). Vanadium was first discovered by Andrés Manuel del Río , a Spanish mineralogist in Mexico City in 1801 in a lead ore, vanadinite (lead vanadate), which he called "brown lead". Because of the chrome-like colors of the element connections, he named the new element Panchrom. Del Rio later changed the name to Erythronium (Greek for red) because it usually turned red when heated. French chemists were able to convince del Rio that "brown lead" is a basic lead chromate and that erythronium is therefore only contaminated chromium. Del Rio was persuaded and his discovery was forgotten. In 1831 the Swede Nils Gabriel Sefström rediscovered vanadium while experimenting with iron ores. In the same year Friedrich Wöhler del Rios confirmed earlier work. Metallic vanadium was produced by Henry Enfield Roscoe in 1867 by reducing vanadium (III) chloride with hydrogen . Vanadium compounds show a large and beautiful variety of colors. That is why Sefström named it after Freya, the Nordic goddess of beauty, who was nicknamed Vanadis.

W.

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number		 etymology
hydrogen H 1 Hydrogen was discovered by the English chemist and physicist Henry Cavendish in 1766 when he was experimenting with mercury and acids . When he brought the two substances together, small gas bubbles formed in the mixture. On closer inspection he could not identify it as one of the known gases. Although he wrongly assumed that hydrogen was part of mercury (instead of part of acid), he was able to describe the properties of the gas well. A more detailed analysis was done by Antoine Lavoisier . The French chemist discovered the gas independently of Cavendish in 1787 when he wanted to show in an experiment that no mass is lost or generated in chemical reactions . He heated water in a closed apparatus and let the steam condense elsewhere. He found that the mass of the condensed water was slightly less than that of the original amount. A gas (H 2 ) was created for this, the mass of which corresponded exactly to the amount of water that was "lost". So his actual experiment was successful. Lavoisier examined the resulting gas further and carried out what is now known as the oxyhydrogen test, which burned the gas. He therefore initially called it “combustible air”. When he showed in further experiments that water can also be produced from the gas the other way around, he baptized it as hydro-gène (hydro = water, Greek; genes = generating). The word therefore means: "water-maker". The German name suggests the same origin of the term.
tungsten W. 74 As early as the 16th century, the famous Freiberg mineralogist Georgius Agricola described the occurrence of a mineral in Saxon tin ores, which made tin extraction considerably more difficult due to the slagging of the tin content. Whether it was wolframite is still controversial today, as he spoke of the “lightness” of the mineral. He named the mineral lupi spuma, which translated from Latin means "wolf (s) foam". Wolf foam was later turned into wolf cream. And finally the now known word tungsten came into being. The word "Tungsten", which is common in English and French, is derived from "Tung Sten" (Swedish for "heavy stone") ( calcium tungstate ).

X

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xenon Xe 54 Xenon (Greek xenos ξένος = foreign) was separated from raw krypton on July 12, 1898 by the Scottish chemist William Ramsay and his English colleague Morris William Travers . With the ending -on, which is typical for noble gases .

Y

Surname sym
bol		 Properly
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number		 etymology
ytterbium Yb 70 Ytterbium (derived from Ytterby , a mine on an archipelago north of Stockholm , which also stood for the names of the elements yttrium , terbium and erbium ) was discovered in 1878 by the Swiss chemist Jean Charles Galissard de Marignac . Marignac found a new ingredient in the soil known as Erbia and named it Ytterbia. He suspected a new element in the compound he had isolated, which he called ytterbium. In 1907 the French chemist Georges Urbain Marignacs separated Ytterbia into two components, Neoytterbia and Lutetia. Carl Auer von Welsbach also worked with Ytterbia at the same time and named the two components Aldebaranium and Cassiopeium. The element name neoytterbium was later shortened to ytterbium.
yttrium Y 39 Yttrium (derived from the Ytterby mine near Stockholm ) was discovered in the mineral ytterbit by Johan Gadolin in 1794 .

Z

Surname sym
bol		 Properly
nungs-
number		 etymology
zinc Zn 30th The name zinc comes from "Zinke, Zind" "Zahn, Zacke", because zinc solidifies like a spike. The distillate is deposited on the walls of the melting furnace in the form of prongs or prongs.
tin Sn 50 Zinn ( old Germanic name: e.g. Old High German zin = stick, tin). The metal tin was originally cast in stick form. In Latin, tin means stannum , hence the chem. Symbol Sn.
Zirconium Zr 40 Zirconium was named after the mineral zirconium , which is a zirconium compound and was discovered by Martin Heinrich Klaproth in 1789 .

Systematic names

Elements that have not yet been finally named are given a preliminary systematic element name .

Geographical names

A large number of chemical elements owe their names to geographical names. The Swedish village of Ytterby , after which four elements are named, is striking .

In detail, these are the following names:

The etymology of:

Named after celestial bodies

Naming after people

Several chemical elements are named after people, not because they discovered the element in question, but to honor them as outstanding scientists:

Named after mythological figures

Some elements are named after mythological characters:

Greek mythology :

Norse mythology :

Some elements are named indirectly after mythological figures, which take their name from celestial bodies ( selenium , palladium , cerium , uranium , neptunium and plutonium) or ores ( cadmium ), which in turn are named after figures from Greek or Roman mythology.

The elements cobalt and nickel are named after other legendary figures .

Named after minerals or other substances

Some elements are named after minerals or other substances from which they were partly isolated for the first time, for example:

In the case of antimony , at least the element symbol (Sb) is derived from the Latin name of a mineral.

literature

  • Per Enghag: Encyclopedia of the Elements - Technical Data, History, Processing, Applications. Wiley-VCH, Weinheim 2004, ISBN 3-527-30666-8 .
  • Harry H. Binder: Lexicon of the chemical elements - the periodic table in facts, figures and data. Hirzel, Stuttgart 1999, ISBN 3-7776-0736-3 .

See also

Web links