Interesting historical facts about the discovery and origin of the names of chemical elements

3 years тому 0

Mendeleev’s table of chemical elements is known to everyone. It can be seen in every school chemistry classroom, found in science museums or “unearthed” in forgotten old home magazines. Chemical elements (as of the beginning of 2023, their total number is 118) are arranged in order of discovery. It is interesting that scientists still cannot determine the exact date of discovery of many of them.

Have you ever wondered why this or that element is called one way or another? It turns out that there are more valid reasons for this than just the whims of scientists. The fact is that each chemical element can be named according to one of the principles:

by characteristic properties;
by continent, country, city or place of origin;
by natural source;
by the name of ancient gods, myths, heroes or names of heavenly bodies.

In addition, each name must be unique and maintain “historical and chemical consistency”.

The entire process of obtaining a name for a chemical element is very long and consists of several stages. First, the scientist (or group of scientists who discovered the element) suggests its name. Then the Ad Hoc Section of the American Group of the International Union of Pure and Applied Chemistry (IUPAC) must accept the proposal. Another five months are spent on public consideration of the proposed name. And only after that, the name of the new chemical element of the periodic system will be announced in the scientific journal “Pure and Applied Chemistry”.

So, we suggest that you familiarize yourself with the origin of the names of each of the elements of Mendeleev’s table in detail:

#	Name	Name origin
1	Hydrogen (H)	From the Latin “hydrogenium” – the one that gives birth to water. Its other name – Hydrogen – is more common.
2	Helium (No)	From the Greek “helios” – sun. Interestingly, the name Helium reflects the history of its discovery. Originally Lockyer used the ending “ium” in the name, because he attributed this element to metals.
3	Lithium (Li)	From the Greek “lithos” – stone. This name was suggested by the chemist and mineralogist, Jens Jacob Berzelius, who discovered the chemical element in the stone.
4	Beryllium (Ve)	The name of this element comes from the name of the mineral beryl. And the name of beryl minerals, in turn, comes from the Sanskrit word “vaidurya” (vaidurya), which is also derived from the name of the modern city of Belur (South India ), where beryl deposits are located.
5	Bohr (B)	From the Latin “borax” – borax. It was discovered by two different scientists independently in 1808 from boric acid, which in turn comes from borax – white salts that dissolve in water.
6	Carbon (C)	It comes from the Latin “carbo” – coal. It is interesting that in the Ukrainian language carbon is called “coal”, which is also a derivative of the word “coal”.
7	Nitrogen (N)	From the Latin “nitrogenium” – saltpeter and give birth, produce. Initially, this element was called Nitrogen. From the Greek “azoe” – non-living. But after long studies (which showed that nitrogen is only one simple substance of Nitrogen), it was assigned a more successful name Nitrogen.
8	Oxygen (O)	From the Latin “oxygenium” – generates acid. In 2019, it was proposed to call it Oxygen – after its most common simple substance. However, you can often meet the name Oxygen.
9	Fluorine (F)	From the Greek “ftoros” – destruction. Taka the name of this chemical element is used only in East Slavic, Greek and languages borrowed from Russian. In most countries, the name Fluor is used – from the Latin “fluere” – to flow.
10	Neon (Ne)	From the Greek “neos” – new. According to legend, a 12-year-old scientist who discovered this element, seeing bright red radiation in a test tube, shouted with joy: “New! New!”
11	Sodium (Na)	From the Arabic “natr” – soda. It was discovered and named in 1807 by Humphrey Davy, an English chemist.
12	Magnesium (Mg)	From the city of Magnesia on the Aegean Sea. It was here that large deposits of magnesite minerals with a high magnesium content were discovered.
13	Aluminum (AI)	From the Latin “alumen” – alum. Alum is a double potassium-aluminum sulfate that was used for pickling in fabric dyeing.
14	Silicon (Si)	From the Latin “silicium” – stone. There is another name for silicon – silicon – from the Old Slavic word “kremin” – hard stone.
15	Phosphorus (P)	From the Greek “phos fero” – to carry light. Its first name is cold fire.
16	Sulfur (C)	From Sanskrit “sira” means yellow. Sulfur is known to many by its other name – sulfur.
17	Chlorine (CI)	From the Greek “chloros” – greenish, green. This is what the English scientist H. Davy called it back in 1810.
18	Argon (Ar)	From the Greek “argos” means idleness. With this name, scientists emphasized the main property of a chemical element – its inactivity.
19	Potassium (K)	From the Arabic “kali” – potash. From 1807 to 1809, potassium was called potassium.
20	Calcium (Ca)	From the Latin “calx” – lime. The old Ukrainian name Kalciyu sounds like that – lime.
21	Scandium (Sc)	From the Latin “scandium” – Scandinavia. Nilsson, who discovered this element, named it after his homeland.
22	Titanium (Ti)	In honor of the child titans Uranus and Gaia. The first discovery of titanium took place in 1091 – then the element was named “menakanum”.
23	Vanadium (V)	In honor of the ancient Scandinavian goddess of beauty – Freya Vanadis.
24	Chrome (Cr)	From the Greek “chromosome” – paint, color. The element got its name due to the bright color of its compounds.
25	Manganese (Mn)	From German “Mangan”, and further from the Italian “manganese”. There are also Latin and Greek versions of the title element Both are related to the oxidizing properties of manganese compounds.
26	Ferrum (Fe)	Ukrainian version of the name Ferum – Zalizo – comes from the older name “iron”. And the name Ferum comes from the Latin “ferrum”, which, in turn, is a borrowing from Eastern languages.
27	Cobalt (Co)	From German “Kobold” – homeboy, dwarf. Named after an evil Kobold spirit.
28	Nickel (Ni)
29	Copper (Cu)	From the Greek “Kuprus” – Cyprus – this is where it was mined 5 thousand years ago.
30	Zinc (Zn)	From the Greek “Tsinn” – tin. According to the hypothesis, the Greeks knew about zinc, but called it “false silver”.
31	Gallium (Ga)	From the Latin “galli” – Gaul – the Latin name of France.
32	Germanium (Ge)	In honor of Germany. At first, the scientist who discovered Germanium wanted to call it “Neptunium”, but it turned out that such a name already existed for one falsely discovered element. Another name suggestion – Angulations – is a controversial one.
33	Arsenic (As)	From the Greek “Αρσενικόν” – strong, courageous. Another name for this element – arsenic – comes from the use of its compounds to fight mice and rats.
34	Selenium (Se)	From the Greek “Selena” – Moon – because it is a permanent companion of tellurium (Latin “earth”).
35	Bromine (Br)	From the Greek “bromos” – stench. Joseph Louis Gay-Lussac compared the smell of bromine to the stench of a goat.
36	Krypton (Kr)	From the Greek “Kryptos” – hidden. Krypton was named by the same scientists as neon and xenon – Ramsay and Travers.
37	Rubidium (Rb)	From the Latin “rubidus” – dark red. It got its name in accordance with the brightest lines of the spectrum – red.
38	Strontium (Sr)	From the Scottish village of Stronshean. There is a theory that the name of the element comes from the name of the mineral in which this element was discovered – strontianite.
39	Yttrium (Y)	From the Swedish village of Itterby. Named by Anders Gustaf Ekeberg in 1797.
40	Zirconium (Zr)	From the zircon mineral in which it was discovered.
41	Niobium (Nb)	In honor of the mythical princess Niobe, daughter of King Tantalus, because niobium is very similar in properties to tantalum.
42	Molybdenum (Mo)	From the Greek “molybdos” – lead. It got its name due to the similarity of its ores with lead.
43	Technetium (Tc)	From the Greek “technetos” – artificial. Became the first artificially obtained element.
44	Ruthenium (Ru)	From the Latin “Ruthenia” – Russia. Named after the scientist who rediscovered this element.
45	Rhodium (Rh)	From the Greek “rodon” – rose or pink – a large number of its compounds are pink.
46	Palladium (Pd)	In honor of the asteroid Pallas, which was discovered before this chemical element was discovered.
47	Argentum (Ag)	From the Assyrian “sarpa” – silver, the metal of the Moon. Another origin of the name from the words “sickle” and “crescent”.
48	Cadmium (Kd)	From the fortress of Cadmeia in ancient Egypt. Cadma is an ancient Greek hero, in whose honor the ore from which cadmium was extracted was named.
49	India (In)	Discovered and named in 1862 in England from the main color in the spectrum – indigo.
50	Stanum (Sn)	From Sanskrit “aloe” means white. Another origin of the name is from the Latin “sta”, which means “firm, stable, strong”.
51	Stibium (Sb)	From the Persian “surme” – black hair dye. It is used for the production of matches and various types of pyrotechnics.
52	Tellurium (Te)	From the Latin “Tellus” – earth. Named after our planet in Latin.
53	Iodine (I)	From the Greek “iodos” – purple, violet-like. Indicates the base color of the vapor being sublimated.
54	Xenon (Xe)	From the Greek “xenos” – foreign. Named so because it was accidentally discovered by English scientists in 1894.
55	Cesium (Cs)	From the Greek “cesius” – grayish-blue or sky-blue. This chemical element got its name from two bright bands in the spectrum of the corresponding colors.
56	Barium (Ba)	From the Greek “baris” – heavy. The name comes from the word “barite” – the land where barium was first discovered.
57	Lanthanum (Ln)	From the Greek “Lanthan” – hiding. This chemical element was hidden from many scientists for 36 years in the mineral cerium.
58	Cerium (Ce)	After the asteroid Ceres, which, in turn, was named after the Roman goddess of fertility.
59	Prazeodymium (Pr)	From the Greek “prazeos didymos” – green twin. In 1885, the chemist Baron Karl Auef von Welsbach was able to divide didim into two elements:Neodymium and Praseodymium.
60	Neodymium (Nd)	From the Greek “neos didymos” – a new twin. Discovered simultaneously with another chemical element – Praseodymium.
61	Prometheus (Pm)	In honor of Prometheus. Since scientists found this chemical element in a nuclear reactor, it was named after the hero who stole fire from Olympus – Prometheus.
62	Samaria (Sm)	From the mineral samarskite, which, in turn, is named after the Russian mining engineer V. E. Samarsky-Bykhovets.
63	Europe (Eu)	In honor of Europe – the continent where the chemist Demarse (France) discovered this chemical element.
64	Gadolinium (Gd)	Named after the Finnish chemist Juhan Gadolin, who discovered another chemical element – Yttrium.
65	Terbiium (Tb)	From Latin “brown”. Like the names of the other three elements (Erbium, Ytterbium, Lithium), its name comes from the Swedish village of Ytterby.
66	Dysprosium (Dy)	From the Greek “disprositos” – hard to reach. So named because this chemical element is indeed very difficult to obtain.
67	Holmii (Ho)	The name comes from the Latin name of the Swedish capital – Stockholm – “Hill”.
68	Erbium (Er)	From the Swedish village of Itterby. In translation, it means “pink” – it is used to make colored glass.
69	Thulium (Tm)	In honor of the mythical island of Thule. This is the name of the legendary island, which, according to one theory, is located in the north of Scandinavia.
70	Ytterbium (Yb)	From the Swedish village of Itterby (like the other three chemical elements). Means “colorless oxide”.
71	Lutetium (Lu)	From the Latin “Lutetius” – Paris. The name comes from the city in which it was discovered for the first time.
72	Hafnium (Hf)	From the Latin “Hafnia” – Copenhagen. Named by the International Commission for the capital of the Netherlands to resolve the dispute between three scientists for the first discovery.
73	Tantalum (Ta)	In honor of the mythical king Tantalus. Since the discovery of this chemical element was very difficult, it was named in honor of a cruel and tsar who was sentenced to eternal torment.
74	Tungsten (W)	Gets its name from the mineral wolframite. And the mineral, in turn, got its name from the German “early wolf” – wolf’s foam. Scientists associated the behavior of the mineral with the behavior of the wolf.
75	Rhenium (Re)	In honor of the Rhine River or the German Rhineland province, where the discoverer of the element – Ida Noddak – comes from.
76	Osm (Os)	From the Greek “osmosis” – smell. Named for its characteristic unpleasant smell, which is derived from osmium oxide.
77	Iridium (Ir)	From the Greek “Iridis” – rainbow – the salts of this chemical element are colored in different colors.
78	Platinum (Pt)	From the Spanish “plata” means small silver. Platinum is also called “white gold”. It is used to manufacture expensive devices in the chemical industry.
79	Aurum (Au)	From the Latin “Aurum” – to shine. The name also comes from the old Roman name for gold – aurum.
80	Mercury (Hg)	From the Latin “hydrargyrum” – liquid silver. In the Middle Ages, alchemists designated this chemical element Mercurius (in honor of the planet Mercury).
81	Tallium (Ti)	From the Greek “thallos” – a green branch, a sprout. The name is related to the light green color in the spectrum.
82	Plumbum (Pb)	Plumbum – lead. From the Latin plumber – plumber. The name comes from the times of ancient Rome, where lead pipes were used to make water pipes.
83	Bismuth (Bi)	Was first discovered in Germany. Accordingly, the name comes from the German word “Wismuth”, which, in turn, comes from “weiße Masse” – white mass.
84	Polonium (Po)	From the Latin “Polonia” – Poland. Named by the Curies in honor of Poland.
85	Astat (At)	From the Greek “astatos” – unstable – which reflects the nature of this chemical element. For some time it was named after the American state of Alabama.
86	Radon (Rn)	From the radioactive element Radium, with which Radon was discovered. Translated from the Latin language as “brilliant, the one that shines”.
87	France (Fr)	Named after France. In honor of the homeland of the scientist Margarita Pere.
88	Radium (Ra)	From the Latin “radius” – ray. This radioactive element was discovered by the Curies.
89	Actinium (Ac)	From the Greek “axis” – ray, radiation of light. Actively used in nuclear physics.
90	Thorium (Th)	In honor of the Scandinavian god Thor – the god of war, thunder and lightning.
91	Protactinium (Pa)	From the Greek “protos axis” – the first ray or “ancestor of Actinium” – since Actinium comes from Protactinium.
92	Uranium (U)	In honor of the planet Uranus, which in 1789 was the most distant known planet in the solar system.
93	Neptunium (Np)	In honor of the planet Neptune, which follows Uranus. Also used in nuclear power.
94	Plutonium (Pu)	In honor of the planet Pluto, which as of 1940 was still part of the planets.
95	Americius (Am)	Americium was discovered in America and the precious metal was named after that part of the world.
96	Curie (Cm)	Named after Marie and Pierre Curie. It is interesting that this is the only chemical element in the designation of which there is the letter “m”, which is not in the name “Curie”.
97	Berkeley (Bk)	The chemical element was discovered in California, in the city of Berkeley – hence its name.
98	Californium (Cf)	California is another chemical element whose name clearly refers to its place of discovery – California.
99	Einsteinius (Es)	Named after the famous scientist Albert Einstein.
100	Fermi (Fm)	A new chemical element discovered in America in 1952 is named after the Italian physicist Enrico Fermi.
101	Mendeleev (Md)	Named in memory of the Russian chemist Dmitri Mendeleev.
102	Nobelius (No)	The synthesized chemical element is named after Alfred Nobel.
103	Lawrence (Lr)	The chemical element was invented in California in 1961. It is named after the American physicist Ernest Lawrence, who once invented the cyclotron.
104	Rutherfordium (Rf)	In 1964, scientists from Dubna (former USSR) synthesized a chemical element and named it Kurchatii. However, because it was obtained for microscopic purposes and is not used, in 1997 the chemical element was named after Ernest Rutherford.
105	Dubny (Db)	In honor of Dubna – the Center for Research in Nuclear Physics. It was here that it was first opened in 1967.
106	Syborgius (Sg)	Cyborgius was first discovered by American scientists in 1974. It got its name in honor of the American scientist H. Seaborg.
107	Borium (Bh)	This chemical element was also discovered in Dubna. It got its name in honor of the Danish physicist Niels Bohr.
108	Hasius (Hs)	This chemical element got its name from the place of its discovery – the city of Darmstadt (Hesse, Germany).
109	Meitnerium (Mt)	Another artificially synthesized element in 1982 in Germany. Named after the Austrian-Swedish chemist and mathematician Lisa Meitner.
110	Darmstadt (Ds)	On November 9, 1994, chemical element No. 110 Darmstadtium was synthesized for the first time at the Heavy Ion Research Center in Darmstadt – hence its name.
111	X-ray (Rg)	The third chemical element, which was also synthesized in the German city of Darmstadt. Named in memory of Wilhelm Konrad Röntgen. It is interesting that 10 years passed from the moment of its opening to the official approval of the name.
112	Copernicius (Cn)	The previous name of Copernicus is Ununbius (eka-mercury). Only 14 years after the element was first synthesized, it was named after Nicolaus Copernicus.
113	Ununtrium (Uut) or Nichonius	From the Latin “ununutrium” – eka-thalium. Scientists from Dubna, where this element was discovered, proposed to call it Becquerel (in honor of Henri Becquerel). Scientists from Japan had suggestions for the name: Japan, Nisinani or Riken. In the end, IUPAC approved the name “Nihonii” – in honor of one of the self-name variants of Japan.
114	Ununquadium (Uuq)	From the Latin “ununquadium” – one-one-four. Its official name is Flerov – in honor of the Laboratory of Nuclear Reactions named after G. N. Flerov.
115	Ununpentius (Uup)	From the Latin ununpentium – eka-bismuth. Its new name is Moscow – in honor of the city where it was first synthesized.
116	Ununghexium (Uuh)	From the Latin “unungexium” – eka-polonium. The official name – Livermore – in honor of the Livermore National Laboratory named after E. Lawrence (USA).
117	Ununseptius (Uus)	From the Latin “ununseptium” – eka-astat. The new name is Tennessee – in honor of the American state of Tennessee (as well as the Oak Ridge National Laboratory and the universities of Vanderbilt and Tennessee).
118	Ununoctius (Uuo)	From the Latin “ununoctium” – eka-radon. In 2016, it received a permanent official name and designation – Oganeson (Og) – in memory of academician Yu.Ts. Hovhannesyan.