R: Kalzium - names of elements

LucaTringali TRINGALINVENT at libero.it
Wed Feb 22 21:50:25 UTC 2012


Hi,
well, names often have an uncertain origin... the things you wrote seem right 
to me. I will just add that Antimony is also called Stibium (that's why the 
simbol is Sb) because it was seen in form of little sticks (in latin "stibium" 
means "stick").

Luca Tringali

>----Messaggio originale----
>Da: claus_chr at webspeed.dk
>Data: 22/02/2012 20.34
>A: <kde-edu at postbox.kde.org>
>Ogg: Kalzium - names of elements
>
>In the explanations of names of the elements, I have come across some 
>that appear a bit doubtful - at least they don't agree with my sources. 
>Not that my sources are infallible - in fact they often disagree among 
>each other - anyway I offer their alternatives here for your consideration.
>
>Hydrogen: the suffix from greek 'genes' (creator) or 'geinomai' (to 
>beget) or 'genos' (lineage)
>
>Beryllium: named after the gemstone beryl (the greek name for beryl is 
>'berullos')
>
>Nitrogen: 'nitre', a medieval term for salpeter (a distortion of the 
>greek 'nitron' meaning soda) + greek 'genes'
>
>Sulfur: latin 'sulpur' perhaps from sanskrit 'shulbari' (enemy of 
>cupper) or 'sulber'
>
>Argon: from greek 'argos' (inactive)
>
>Zinc: uncertain. german 'zinke' (something pointed, like a tooth), or 
>derived form 'zinn' (tin) or from persian 'seng' (stone)
>
>Selenium: greek 'selene' (moon)
>
>Yttrium: Yttrium, Terbium, Erbium and Ytterbium are all named after 
>Ytterby. Gadolinium, however, is named after the finnish kemisk J. Gadolin
>
>Molybdenum: Named after the mineral molybdena, which was often confused 
>with graphite and galena (a common lead ore). The greek 'molybdos' means 
>lead.
>
>Rhodium: greek 'rhodon' (rose)
>
>Cadmium: Calamine, from greek 'kadmeia' (a mixture of zinc carbonate and 
>zinc silicate) is the mineral in which cadmium was discovered.
>
>Antimony: 'antimonium' is a medieval latin word of uncertain origin. 
>Apparently there are many inventive suggestions, but no real evidence 
>for any of them.
>
>Dysprosium: Greek 'dysprositos' (difficult to reach)
>
>Erbium: (Yttrium is also named after Ytterby)
>
>Ytterbium: Yttrium, Terbium, Erbium and Ytterbium are all named after 
>Ytterby. Gadolinium, however, is named after the finnish kemisk J. Gadolin
>
>Hafnium: Copenhagen (or København in danish :)
>
>Protactinium: Actually it comes after Actinium in the periodic table. 
>However it precedes Actinium in a radioactive decay chain.
>
>Nobelium: It is a bit of a stretch to call Nobel a scientist. He was a 
>chemist, but worked as an engineer and industrialist.
>
>Much of this was found on Wikipedia (english pages), but I also 
>consulted two handbooks on chemical terminology and two books on the 
>elements (all four quite recent but in Danish, unfortunately)
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