Contents
Guestbook
Let me know what you think of this website, and sign my guestbook
Acknowledgments
First, I would like to thank the persons and companies who gave me permission to use their photos or other information:
- Thomas Witzke, Institut für Mineralogie und Lagerstättenlehre der Rheinisch-Westfälische Technische Hochschule, Aachen.
- John Veevaert, Trinity Mineral Company, Weaverville, Calif.
- Steve Covey, Amethyst Galleries, Inc., Dublin, Ohio.
- Justin D. Urgitis, photos from his element collection.
- John P. Pratt, memory pegs for English elements names and chemical symbols
Furthermore, chemists and other interested persons of all over the world helped me with additions and corrections in the history and naming of elements:
- Zdenek Cimpl from Frenstat pod Radhostem, Czech Republic, Febr. 2004.
- Marco Fontani, Univ. of Florence, Italy, Febr. 2003.
- Krzysztof W. Zielinski from Poland, Jan. 2003.
- Curt Fischer from Tokyo, Japan, Dec. 2002.
- Valerii Bashevoy, from the JINR, Dubna, Russia, Dec. 2002.
- Thomas Witzke, Univ. of Aachen, Germany, July 2002.
- Timur Labutin, Moscow State University, Russia, June 2002.
- Pekka Pyykko, University of Helsinki, Finland, Oct. 2000.
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Introduction
 This is THE web site for element names. You will find this site useful not only for the origins (etymology) of element names, but also for translations of each element name into numerous other languages. (from McGraw-Hill Ryerson).
I am not a chemist, but a (map) historian much interested in the origin of names. On several of the sites listing elements you will find historical notes and often an explanation of the origin of element names. However, mostly, the authors of these pages copy each other and the same errors and mistakes are repeated. I tried to do some new etymological research on the element names, and find the original articles where the discoverer of a new element announced his find and explained the naming.
If you have remarks, corrections, additions, etc. please e-mail me or sign the
guestbook.
What do you find in this web site?
The major part is formed by 117 pages, each describing one element. These pages can be accessed in a number of ways: by name (in dozens of languages), atomic number, date of discovery, discoverer, name origin etc. (see list to the left), or, instant access with the periodic table on this page. On each element page you will find:
- A history of the discovery and naming of the element. In this text the emphasis is on the naming. This is mainly based on the works by Weeks and Gmelin (see page Sources)
The chemical process and other chemical information is kept very short or is not present at all.
- A list of the names of the element in 70 languages.
- At least one illustration: the appearance of the element, a mineral in which the element occurs, a portrait of the discoverer, or an example of the use of the element.
- Blue texts and most of the illustrations link to other pages or websites or let extra information pop up. If the link refers to an offsite webpage, this page appears in a new window.
Just move your mouse over blue texts and illustrations and you'll see what happens.
What do you NOT find in this web site?
- Scientific data (chemical and physical) of the elements. There are hundreds of website presenting that information. A very complete one is
 , or
and  (from this site I copied the image of the periodic table here above) .
Peter van der Krogt in Strontian, the town where the element Strontium got its name from.
Latest updates
3 May 2009: Work, work work, and another website take most of my time. I still have the intention to update the site. I am now planning to have the dictionary in a database structure, so it will be easier to update the site.
3 January 2007: Today I received my copy of the German edition of Figurowski's book (see sources.), an internet buy from a bookseller in Heilbronn. I hope to find soon the time to make the update promised almost a year ago.....
4 November 2006: Still no time for the 'normal' update, but I added some information on the newly discovered element 118.
8 January 2006: Six months without updates, the excuse: my work. Today were updated: element 113 (Zdenek Cimpl sent me a new reference in June), Platinum (translation of Scaliger's text by Martin E Huld), Tungsten (reference sent by Laine Ives of St. Charles, Missouri). I have added jdurg's illustrations to the elements 84 and higher.
In December 2005 Uwe Ocken from Achim-Baden (Germany) sent me a photocopy of chapter 3 of the German edition of Figurowski's book (see sources.). This chapter "Fehlinterpretation, frühere Bezeichnungen; Veraltete und abgelehnte Namen; Isotope und allotrope Modifikationen" (Misinterpretation, former designations; Outdated and rejected names. Isotopes and allotropic modifications). This chapter does perfectly agree with my sub-website "Names that did not make it" [I did not know that before!]. I try to update this part of the site with this new information in the next couple of weeks. 10 January: Astatine, Francium and Neptunium,
30 April, 4 & 5 May 2005: Sellars's poems of the elements added to the element descriptions.
4 May also an update of Hydrogen.
26 April 2005: Today I got my copy of J. Carrington Sellars, Chemistianity (Birkenhead, 1873), and made a short description of this peculiar book. Information from this book is already added to the Platinum metals.
23 April 2005: Text of the Platinum metals updated: Platinum, Palladium, Rhodium, Osmium, and Iridium.
Also some updates of Aluminium, Silicium, Zirconium, and Beryllium.
4/10 April 2005: Change in layout, with among others addition of the photo from the Justin Urgitis Element Collection and the memory peg by John Pratt. Korean, Tamil, Swahili names added to the elements files, and the transcription of the Thai names corrected, thanks to Trongjai Hutangkura (4 April: elements 1-28 updated; 5 April: 29-43; 9 April: 44-74; 10 April: 75-118).
For earlier updates, see Site History
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Sorry! The element files are encoded with UTF-8 with the format &#xnnnn;, only the latest versions of MS Internet Explorer (6) and Netscape (7) will give all correct symbols. UTF-8 is the only way to show on one and the same page the different alphabets and diacritics necessary for the multilingual dictionary. For users of older and other browsers: the numerical lists in the different languages are presented in different versions with language-specific character sets or fonts (more information).
I don't like underlined links, thus, in this site links are indicated by blue letters only.
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