Pylimitics

Lots of elements’ names are etymologically interesting. In the upper reaches of the periodic table these days there are elements that can be produced in a laboratory, but have never been observed in nature — usually because they only exist for fractions of a second before their inherent radioactivity disperses them. Elements with the atomic weights from 113 to 118 were named systematically by using “unus” (Latin for “one”), then switching to Greek words for numbers, then finishing up with the Latin suffix (well really it’s “Latin-ish”) “ium.” These elements are ununtrium, ununquadium, ununpentium, ununhexium, ununseptium, and ununoctium. That is to say they are actually called “one-one-three-ium,” “one-one-four-ium,” and so forth. Apparently somebody had a bad imagination day. 

Then there are the elements named for places. The obvious ones are americium, europium, and francium — but gallium is named for Gaul (so France gets two!), polonium for Poland, and in Latin, Russia used to be called “Ruthenia,” so ruthenium is named for a place too. But it doesn’t stop there: californium, rhenium (from Rheinland), magnesium (Magnesia was a place in ancient Greece), hafnium (Hafnia), holmium (Holmia) — Halfnia and Holmia were what Copenhagen and Stockholm were called in medieval Latin — and another ancient Latin city, Lutetia, shows up as lutetium. Lutetia was where Paris is today. Thulium sort of qualifies as named after a place — Thule — even though strictly speaking Thule only existed in legends. Some think, though, that “Thule” actually referred to a real place: Trondheim. Strontium is named after the village of Strontian in Scotland — and it this case there’s a real connection, because there’s a lead mine there where a strontium compound was discovered. But the winner is a little Swedish town: Ytterby. That shows up in ytterbium, yttrium, erbium, and terbium. Just like Strontian, Ytterby shows up in element names because of what was discovered there: the rare-earth mineral called yttria was found in a mine and research into it produced those four new elements. 

There are two elements named for smells. Bromide comes from “bromos,” which is Greek for “stench” (bromide, they say, really does stink). And osmium’s name comes from the Greek “osme” (odor). I couldn’t find a reference that reveals whether osmium also stinks. 

“Tungsten” is simply a Swedish compound word; it means heavy (“tung”) stone (“sten”). 

And finally, there are colors — chlorine comes from the Greek “chloros,” which means yellowish-green (correct color for the element), cesium is from Latin caesius (“sky blue”), indium is from another shade of blue, indigo, and chromium beats them all by coming from “chroma,” which is Greek for color. Not any particular color, mind you, just “color.” Maybe that was a nod to the most obvious property of chromium — it’s super shiny!