List of chemical element name etymologies

A

Name	Symbol	Language of origin	Word of origin	Meaning	Type of name	Description	Image
Actinium	Ac	Greek	ἀκτίς (aktis)	beam	descriptive	"ἀκτίς" etymology: "ἀκτῖνος" (aktis; aktinos), meaning "beam (ray)".
Aluminium	Al	Latin	alumen	alum		means "alum".	Alum Crystal.
Americium	Am		America		toponym	Named for the Americas, because was discovered in the United States (by analogy with Europium)- (the name of the continent "America" is derived from the name of the Italian navigator Amerigo Vespucci).	The Americas
Antimony	Sb	Greek?	ἀντί + μόνος (anti monos)?	various		" Possibly from Greek ἀντί + μόνος (anti monos), approximately meaning "opposed to solitude", as believed never to exist in pure form, or anti-monachos, (the French antimoine, still has adherents) for "monk-killer", because many early alchemists were monks and antimony is poisonous. May also be derived from the Pharaonic (Ancient Egypt), Antos Ammon (expression), which could be translated as "bloom of the god Ammo". The symbol Sb is from Latin name Stibium. The word derived from Greek στίμμι (stimmi; genitive: στίμμεος), probably a loan word from Arabic or Egyptian. Littré suggests the first form derives from stimmida, an accusative of stimmi. The Arabic word for the substance, as "mark" or "the cosmetic", can appear as ithmid, athmoud, othmod or uthmod.[1]"
Argon	Ar	Greek	ἀργόν (argon)	inactive	descriptive	means "inactive" (literally "lazy").
Arsenic	As	Greek			descriptive	ἀρσένικον (arsenikon), derived from the Persian, "زرنيخ" (zarnik), "yellow orpiment".
Astatine	At	Greek	ἄστατος (astatos)	unstable	descriptive	"ἄστατος" (astatos) means "unstable".[2]

B

Name	Symbol	Language of origin	Word of origin	Meaning	Type of name	Description	Image
Barium	Ba	Greek	βαρύς (barys)	heavy	descriptive	"βαρύς" (barys) means "heavy". The oxide was initially called "barote", then "baryta", which was modified to "barium" to describe the metal.
Berkelium	Bk	English	University of California, Berkeley		toponym	Named for the "University of California, Berkeley", where discovered.
Beryllium	Be		βήρυλλος (beryllos)			βήρυλλος "beryllos", denoting beryl, which contains beryllium.[3]
Bismuth	Bi	Modern Latin	bisemutum		descriptive	"bisemutum", derived from German "Wismuth", perhaps from "weiße Masse", means "white mass", due to its appearance.
Bohrium	Bh		Bohr, Niels		eponym	Named in honor of "Niels Bohr", who made fundamental understanding of atomic structure and quantum mechanics.[4]
Boron	B	Arabic	لاعقشا(buraq)			"لاعقشا" (buraq) derived from the Persian, "بورون" (burah) referring to borax.
Bromine	Br	Greek	βρῶμος (brómos)		descriptive	"βρῶμος" (brómos), means "stench", due to its characteristic smell.

C

Name	Symbol	Language of origin	Word of origin	Meaning	Type of name	Description	Image
Cadmium	Cd	Greek/Latin	καδμεία (cadmia)			From Latin "cadmia", derived from Greek "καδμεία" (kadmeia), means "calamine", a Cadmium-bearing mixture of minerals.
Caesium	Cs	Latin	caesius		descriptive	From Latin "caesius", means "sky blue". Its identification was based upon the bright blue lines in its spectrum and it was the first element discovered by spectrum analysis.
Calcium	Ca	Latin	calx			From Latin "calx", means "lime". Calcium was known as early as the first century when the Ancient Romans prepared lime as calcium oxide.
Californium	Cf	English	California		toponym	Named for "California", the U.S. state of California and for the University of California, Berkeley. (The origin of the state's name is disputed.)
Carbon	C	Latin	charbone	charcoal		From the French, "charbone", which in turn came from Latin "carbo", means "charcoal". (In the German and the Dutch, Kohlenstoff and Koolstof, respectively, both literally mean "coal-stuff")
Cerium	Ce	Latin	Ceres		astrological/ mythological	Named after the asteroid, "Ceres", discovered two years earlier. (The asteroid, now classified as a dwarf planet, was named after "Ceres", the goddess of fertility in mythology) [5]
Chlorine	Cl	Greek	χλωρός (chlorós)			From Greek "χλωρός" (chlorós), means "yellowish green" or "greenish yellow", because of the color of the gas.
Chromium	Cr	Greek	χρῶμα (chróma)	color	descriptive	From Greek, chroma, "color", because of many colors of compounds.
Cobalt	Co	German	Kobold	evil spirit		From German Kobold, means "evil spirit", the metal being so called by miners, because it was poisonous and troublesome (polluted and degraded the other mined elements, like Nickel). Other sources cite the origin as stemming from silver miners' belief that cobalt had been placed by "Kobolds" who had stolen the silver. Some also think the name may be derive from Greek κόβαλος kobalos, means "mine", and which may have common roots with kobold, goblin, and cobalt.
Copper	Cu	Greek?	Κύπριος (Kyprios)?	who/which is from Cyprus		Possibly ultimately derived from Greek via Latin and Old English. In Latin (during the Roman empire), aes cyprium, ("aes" being the generic Latin term for copper alloys such as bronze). Cyprium means "Cyprus" or "which is from Cyprus", where so much of it was mined; it was simplified to cuprum and then eventually Anglicized as copper (Old English coper/copor).
Curium	Cm		Curie, Marie and Pierre		eponym	Named in honor of Marie and Pierre Curie, who discovered Radium and researched radioactivity.

D

E

F

G

H

I

K

L

M

Name	Symbol	Language of origin	Word of origin	Meaning	Type of name	Description	Image
Magnesium	Mg	Greek	Μαγνησία (Magnesia)		toponym	From the Ancient Greek, "Μαγνήσια" (Magnesia) (district in Thessaly), where discovered.	Magnesia
Manganese	Mn	Greek	Μαγνησία (Magnesia; Latin: magnetum)	Magnesia	descriptive	From Latin Magnesia ultimately from Greek; Magnesia evolved into Manganese in Italian and into Manganèse in French.
Meitnerium	Mt		Meitner, Lise		eponym	Named in honor of Lise Meitner, who shared discovery of nuclear fission.[4] It has also been called 'Eka-iridium.[7]	Lise Meitner
Mendelevium	Md		Mendeleyev, Dmitri		eponym	Named in honor of Dmitri Mendeleyev, who invented periodic table.[11] It has also been called 'Eka-thulium.[7]	Mendeleyev
Mercury	Hg	Latin	Mercury		mythological	Named after "Mercury", the god of speed and messenger of the Gods, as was the "planet Mercury" named after the god. The symbol Hg is from Greek name, ὕδωρ αργυρος (hydor argyros), which became Latin, Hydrargyrum; both mean "water - silver", because it is a liquid like water (at room temperature), and has silvery metallic sheen.[5][12]	Mercury
Molybdenum	Mo	Greek	μόλυβδος (molybdos)	lead-like	descriptive	From Greek "μόλυβδος" (molybdos), "lead".

N

O

P

R

S

T

U

V

X

Y

Z

Notes and References

1. ^ Antimony,
   • LSJ, s.v., vocalisation, spelling, and declension vary; Endlich; Celsus, 6.6.6 ff; Pliny Natural History 33.33; Lewis and Short: Latin Dictionary. OED, s. antimony.
   • stimmi is used by the Attic tragic poets of the 5th century BC. Later Greeks also used stibi, which is written in Latin by Celsus and Pliny in the first century AD. Pliny also names stimi (sic-m), larbaris, alabaster, "very common platyophthalmos", "wide-eye" (means about effect of the cosmetic). In Egyptians hieroglyphics, ? (mśdmt), the vowels are uncertain, but there is an Arabic tradition that ? (mesdemet) (Albright; Sarton, quotes Meyerhof, the translator)
2. ^ Astatine, An earlier name for Astatine was Alabamine (Ab)
3. ^ Beryllium, At one time beryllium was referred to as Glucinium, which is from Greek γλυκύς (glykys), means "sweet", due to the sweet taste of its salts.
4. ^ ^{a b c d e f g h i j k l} see Naming controversy below
5. ^ ^{a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r} Some elements (particularly ancient elements) were associated with Greek (or Roman or others) gods or people, on Greek mythology (or other mythology), and with planets (or others in solar system), such as Mercury (mythology) - Mercury (planet) - Mercury (element), etc.
   Also, astrological symbols (for the planets) (particularly ancient elements) also often used same each ancient alchemical symbols (for the element or its metal).
6. ^ Darmstadtium, some humorous scientists suggested the name Policium, because 110 is the emergency telephone number for the German police.
7. ^ ^{a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q} Previous to discovery of some unknown elements, Prof. Dmitri Mendeleev predicted and described most of them appropriately properties, and fill the gaps in the table, on the basis of them position in his Periodic table. The properties of 4 predicted elements, Eka-boron (Eb), Eka-aluminium (El), Eka-manganese (Em), and Eka-silicon (Es), proved to be good predictors of Scandium, Gallium, Technetium and Germanium, respectively. The prefix "eka-", from the Sanskrit, means "one" (places down from the known element in table), and is sometimes used in discussions about undiscovered elements, such as, Untriennium was referred into Eka-actinium. see also: Mendeleev's predicted elements
8. ^ Gold in Sanskrit is jval; in Greek, "χρυσός" (khrusos); in Chinese, 金 (jīn).
9. ^ Iron, Benvéniste 1969 cit. dep
10. ^ Lead, Lead was mentioned in the Book of Exodus. Alchemists believed lead was the oldest metal and associated the element with Saturn.
11. ^ Mendelevium, "Mendeleyev" commonly spelt as Mendeleev, Mendeléef, or Mendelejeff, and first name sometimes spelt as Dmitry or Dmitriy
12. ^ Mercury, The Indian alchemy called Rassayana, means "the way of mercury".
13. ^ Neodymium, is frequently misspelled as neodynium
14. ^ Nickel in Online Etymological Dictionary, accessed December 12, 2008
15. ^ Nitrogen, Pure gas is inert enough that Antoine Lavoisier referred to it as "Azote", means "without life", so this term has become the French for Nitrogen and later spread out to many other languages.
16. ^ Protactinium, Kasimir Fajans and Otto H. Göhring, who identified, name the element 91 Brevium from Latin "brevis", means "brief, short" in 1913. The name was changed to "Protoactinium" in 1918 and shortened to Protactinium in 1949.
17. ^ In medieval Europe, Sodanum is Latin name of "a compound of sodium".
18. ^ Tin, The American Heritage Dictionary

See also

• List of chemical elements naming controversies
• Chemical elements named after people
• Chemical elements named after places