34. Selenium - Elementymology & Elements Multidict

Elementymology & Elements Multidict

This site comprises 120 pages of text and photos, one for each element, and several pages for access. – For captions or explanatory texts move your mouse over illustrations, links etc.

34
Selenium
Selenium – Selen – Sélénium – Selenio – セレン – Селен – 硒
Se
Multilingual dictionary

Indo-European
Selenium Latin

— Germanic
Selenium Afrikaans
Selen Danish
Selen German
Selenium English
Selen Faroese
Selenium Frisian (West)
Selen Icelandic
Selen Luxembourgish
Selenium Dutch
Selen Norwegian
Selen Swedish

— Italic
Selenio Aragonese
Selenuu Aromanian
Seleniu Asturian
Seleni Catalan
Selenio Spanish
Sélénium French
Seleni Friulian
Selenio Galician
Selenio Italian
Seléni Lombard
Selèni Occitan
Selénio Portuguese
Seleniu Romanian - Moldovan

— Slavic
Селен [Selen] Bulgarian
Selen Bosnian
Селен [selen] Belarusian
Selen Czech
Selenij Croatian
Selén Kashubian
Селен [Selen] Macedonian
Selen Polish
Селен [Selen] Russian
Selén Slovak
Selen Slovenian
Селен [Selen] Serbian
Селен [selen] Ukrainian

— Baltic
Selenas Lithuanian
Selēns Latvian
Selens Samogitian

— Celtic
Seleniom Breton
Seleniwm Welsh
Seiléiniam Gaelic (Irish)
Seilèiniam Gaelic (Scottish)
Shellainium Gaelic (Manx)
Selenyum Cornish

— Other Indo-European
Σεληνιο [selinio] Greek
Սելեն [selen] Armenian
Selen[i] Albanian

— Indo-Iranian/Iranian
Selenyûm Kurdish
Селен [selen] Ossetian
Селен [Selen] Tajik

— Indo-Iranian/Indo-Aryan
সেলেনিয়াম [seleniẏāma] Bengali
سلنیم [slnym] Persian
સેલેનિયમનો [seleniyamano] Gujarati
सेलेनियम [seleniyama] Hindi

Finno-Ugric
Seleen Estonian
Seleeni Finnish
Szelén Hungarian
Селен [Selen] Komi
Селен [Selen] Mari
Селени [seleni] Moksha
Seleen Võro

Altaic
Selen Azerbaijani
Селен [Selen] Chuvash
Селен [selen] Kazakh
Селен [Selen] Kyrgyz
Селен [selen] Mongolian
Selenyum Turkish
سېلېن [selen] Uyghur
Selen Uzbek

Other (Europe)
Selenioa Basque
სელენი [seleni] Georgian

Afro-Asiatic
سيلينيوم [silinyūm] Arabic
סלניום [selenium] Hebrew
Selinju[m] Maltese

Sino-Tibetan
Sî (硒) Hakka
セレン [seren] Japanese
셀렌, 2셀레늄 [sellen, sellenyum] Korean
ซีลีเนียม [sīlīniam] Thai
Selen Vietnamese
[xi1 / sai1] Chinese

Malayo-Polynesian
Selenio Cebuano
Selenium Indonesian
Selenium Māori
Selenium Malay

Other Asiatic
സെലീനിയം [selīniyam] Malayalam
செலெனியம் [celeṉiyam] Tamil

Africa
Seleni Lingala
Seleniamo Sesotho
Seleni Swahili

North-America
Selenio Nahuatl

South-America
Silinyu Quechua

Creole
Selenimi Sranan Tongo

Artificial
Seleno Esperanto

New names
Solenion Atomic Elements
Photocopium Dorseyville
memory peg

Amorphous form is a red-brown powder, while the crystalline form is a very reflective black/gray solid
melting point 217 °C; 423 °F
boiling point 685 °C; 1265 °F
density 4.28-4.79 g/cc; 267.19-299.03 pounds/cubic foot
1817 Jakob Berzelius, Sweden
Σεληνη (Selènè) = the Moon (Greek)

History & Etymology

Selenium was first identified in 1817 by the Swedish chemist Jakob Berzelius (1779-1848) (note). Berzelius and his colleague Johann Gottlieb Gahn (1745-1818) were studying a method of producing sulphuric acid in lead cameras when they observed residues of a substance with a very intense scent in the bottom of the camera. At first, they thought it was Tellurium. However, a more careful analysis revealed that there were no residues of this element, in spite of its identical properties. To this new substance was given the name Selenium, term that derives from the Greek Σεληνη [Selènè] (Moon). Since Klaproth had named Tellurium for the Earth, Berzelius thought it appropriate to name the sister element for the Earth's satellite:

In 1873 two English telegraph engineers, Willoughby Smith (1828-1891) and his assistant Joseph May experimented with Selenium and light. They noted that when selenium was exposed to light, its electrical resistance decreased. Thus was discovered the means to transform images into electric signals. Selenium became the basis for the manufacture of photoelectric cells, and the television.

In mythology, Selene resembles a young woman with an extremely white face who travels on a silver chariot drawn by two horses. She is often shown riding a horse or a bull. Selene is said to wear robes, carry a torch, and wear a half moon on her head. She was not one of the twelve great gods on Olympus, however she is the moon goddess. After her brother Helios completes his journey across the sky, she begins hers. Before Selene's journey across the night sky she bathes in the sea. She is known for her countless love affairs. The most famous of her loves is the shepherd Endymion. Encyclopedia Mythica.

Chemistianity 1873
FEYAN
SELENIUM, a Sulphur Associate,
Is a reddish-brown solid Metalloid,
Somewhat translucent, and of dull metallic glance,
Insoluble in Water, and Alcohol.
It exists crystalline, and vitreous;
At Water's boiling heat it melts and boils,
Evolving odour like stale horse-radish.
J. Carrington Sellars, Chemistianity, 1873, p. 96

Further reading
  • Mary Elvira Weeks, Discovery of the Elements, comp. rev. by Henry M. Leicester (Easton, Pa.: Journal of Chemical Education, 1968), pp. 305-317.


Sources Index of Persons Index of Alleged Elements