28. Niccolum (Nickel) - Elementymology & Elements Multidict

Elementymology & Elements Multidict

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28
Niccolum Nickel
Nikkel – Nickel – Nickel – Níquel – ニッケル – Никель – 鎳
Ni
Multilingual dictionary

Indo-European
Niccolum Latin

— Germanic
Nikkel Afrikaans
Nikkel Danish
Nickel German
Nickel English
Nikkul Faroese
Nikkel Frisian (West)
Nikull Icelandic
Nickel Luxembourgish
Nikkel Dutch
Nikkel Norwegian
Nickel Swedish

— Italic
Níquel Aragonese
Nichelu Aromanian
Níquel Asturian
Níquel Catalan
Níquel Spanish
Nickel French
Nichel Friulian
Níquel Galician
Nichelio Italian
Níchel Lombard
Niquèl Occitan
Níquel Portuguese
Nichel Romanian - Moldovan

— Slavic
Никел [Nikel] Bulgarian
Nikl, ²Nikal Bosnian
Нікель [nikel'] Belarusian
Nikl, Pochvistík† Czech
Nikal Croatian
Nikel Kashubian
Никел [Nikel] Macedonian
Nikiel Polish
Никель [Nikel'] Russian
Nikel Slovak
Nikelj Slovenian
Никал [Nikal] Serbian
Нікель [nikel'] Ukrainian

— Baltic
Nikelis Lithuanian
Niķelis Latvian
Nėkelis Samogitian

— Celtic
Nikel Breton
Nicel Welsh
Nicil Gaelic (Irish)
Nicil Gaelic (Scottish)
Nickyl Gaelic (Manx)
Nykel Cornish

— Other Indo-European
Νικελιο [nikelio] Greek
Նիկել [nikel] Armenian
Nikel, ²Nikli Albanian

— Indo-Iranian/Iranian
Nîkel Kurdish
Згъæры мыггаг [zg"æry myggag] Ossetian
Никел [Nikel] Tajik

— Indo-Iranian/Indo-Aryan
নিকেল [nikela] Bengali
نیکل [nykl] Persian
નિકલનો [nikalano] Gujarati
निकेल [nikela] Hindi

Finno-Ugric
Nikkel Estonian
Nikkeli Finnish
Nikkel Hungarian
Никель [Nikel'] Komi
Никель [Nikel'] Mari
Никиль [nikilj] Moksha
Nikli Võro

Altaic
Nikel Azerbaijani
Никель [Nikel'] Chuvash
Никель [nikel'] Kazakh
Никель [Nikel'] Kyrgyz
Никель [nikel'] Mongolian
Nikel Turkish
نىكېل [nikel] Uyghur
Nikel Uzbek

Other (Europe)
Nikela Basque
ნიკელი [nikeli] Georgian

Afro-Asiatic
نيكل [nīkil] Arabic
ניקל [nikel] Hebrew
Nikil Maltese

Sino-Tibetan
Ngiap (鎳) Hakka
ニッケル [nikkeru] Japanese
니켈 [nikel] Korean
นิกเกิล [nikkoen] Thai
Nikel Vietnamese
[nie4 / nip7] Chinese

Malayo-Polynesian
Nikel Cebuano
Nikel Indonesian
Konukōreko Māori
Nikel Malay

Other Asiatic
നിക്കല് [nikkal] Malayalam
நிக்கல் [nikkal] Tamil

Africa
Nikɛ́li Lingala
Nikele Sesotho
Nikeli Swahili

North-America
Iztāctepoztli Nahuatl

South-America
Nikil Quechua

Creole
Niklimi Sranan Tongo

Artificial
Nikelo Esperanto

New names
Niqel Atomic Elements
Magnasilver Dorseyville
memory peg

Gray metal which forms intense green solutions
melting point 1453 °C; 2647 °F
boiling point 2732 °C; 4950 °F
density 8.9 g/cc; 555.73 pounds/cubic foot
1751 Axel Fredrik Cronstedt, Sweden
Kupfernickel = devil's copper (German)

History & Etymology

Naturally occurring nickel-copper alloys, called paktong, were used in China over 2000 years ago. In 235 BC, coins in China were minted from nickel. Saxon miners were familiar with the reddish-coloured ore, a combination of arsenic and nickel (niccolite, NiAs), which superficially resembles Cu2O. These miners attributed their inability to extract copper from this source to the work of the devil and named the ore Kupfernickel (in Swedish kopparnickel). Originally it was a term of abuse used by the miners in the Erzgebirge (Ore Mountains), who searching for Silver found this "inferior" metal. The word is derived from Kupfer = Copper and Nickel = demon, goblin, rascal (a pet form of the name Nikolaus [Nicholas], hence Old Nick "the devil"). Thus kupfernickel - Latinized as Cuprum Nicolai - can be translated as "old Nick's Copper" (or "Devil's Copper").
The word was used in the miners in Upper Saxony, as is indicated by an entry dated 1654 in a miner's register of Schneeberg, Saxony. The word is first found in a printed book in 1694, in Urban Hjärne's Een Kort Anladning till Åtstillige Malm- och Bergarters, Mineraliers, Wäxters, och Jordeflags, sampt Fleva Sätsame Tings (note), a work describing useless ores and minerals. Hjärne does not give any description of the ore.

In 1751 the Swedish mineralogist Axel Fredrik Cronstedt (1722-1765) isolated an impure metal from ores from a "loser Koboltgruben" in the parish of Färlinga in Hälsingland (Sweden), probably Gersdorffite (NiAsS). He identified in it a new half-metal. A few years later, he found out that his half-metal was identical with the metallic component of Kupfernickel, sent to him from Germany. For the new half-metal he chose to retain the name Kupfernickel, or shortly Nickel, until it was sure it was a new metal. His results were confirmed by Torbern Olof Bergman in 1775 (note). Like all metals, Nickel was not considered an element until Antoine Lavoisier (1743-1794) proposed his new chemistry.

Alternative name
  • In the 19th century a native Czech name was proposed: "pochvistík".
 

The American 5-cent coin is called "nickel", but is made of 75% Copper and only 25% Nickel (see: US Buffalo Nickel and the First Nickel Coin).

Chemistianity 1873
RTYAN
NICKEL, the lustrous metal in German Silver,
Is a white, tough, malleable metal,
Strongly magnetic when cold. Some hydrated
Nickel Salts have bright emerald green hue:
The anhydrous Salts have a yellow hue.
Nickel is found in moderate abundance
Combined with Arsenic as Kupfernickel,
And with Cobalt in Speiss, in Germany
And Sweden. Some Meteorites contain Nickel.
J. Carrington Sellars, Chemistianity, 1873, p. 152
Further reading
  • Mary Elvira Weeks, Discovery of the Elements, comp. rev. by Henry M. Leicester (Easton, Pa.: Journal of Chemical Education, 1968), pp. 157-163.
  • Nickel. Gmelins Handbuch der anorganische Chemie, 8. Aufl.; System-Nummer 57 (1967).
  • Kelly Snyder and Peter Russell, Nickel
  • Burde & Co., Nickel und Nickel-Legierungen

Sources Index of Persons Index of Alleged Elements