Elementymology & Elements Multidict

memory peg	Yellow powder/crystals which have an acrid, rotten-egg like odor upon strong heating melting point 113-119 °C; 235-246 °F boiling point 445 °C; 832 °F density 1.96-2.07 g/cc; 122.17-129.23 pounds/cubic foot
Known to the ancients
Sulphur, Latin word for this element

Sulphur occurs naturally in large quantities, either combined as in the sulphides (as pyrites) and sulphates (as gypsum), or native in volcanic regions, in vast beds mixed with gypsum and various earthy materials. It was already known in Antiquity. The popular names was brimstone, meaning literally "burning stone"; (cf. the Icelandic name).
In Genesis it is referred to: "Then the Lord rained upon Sodom and upon Gomorrah brimstone and fire from the Lord out of heaven." (Gen. 19:24). Homer mentions the use of its combustion products as disinfectant sever times. In Book 22 (vs. 480-483) is said:

αυταρ ό γε προσέειπε φίλην τροφον Εύρυκλειαν:
"οισε θέειον, γρηϋ, κακων ακος, οισε δε μοι πυρ,
οφρα θεεωσω μεγαρον!..."

"and Ulysses said to the dear old nurse Euryclea,
«Bring me Sulphur, which cleanses all pollution, and fetch fire also that I may burn it, and purify the cloisters»."

Sulphur was known in antiquity. In Latin, it was called sulpur, and in Greek, Θειο. It was considered the embodiment of fire, and related to lightning. The Greek name, indeed, also means "divinity" and was derived from Θεος, which referred to Zeus, who is often shown with a handful of lightning bolts. In Christian mythology, it is the fuel of Hell. A "p" in Latin was used to represent φ in words borrowed from Greek in the times when it was pronounced with a puff of air, but was not yet the "f" sound. Later, when the "f" sound was used, the "p" often changed to "ph" in Latin words of Greek origin. Although "sulpur" had no Greek roots (it is derived from the Sanscrite sulvere), it was attracted into the form "sulphur" in late classical Latin. The spelling was altered in medieval times to "sulfur," which is the spelling that usually appears in Latin dictionaries. The English word is taken directly from Latin, traditionally in the form "sulphur." The American Chemical Society, at a time when spelling simplification was in vogue, decreed that "sulfur" was to be the accepted form in the United States. Although resisted by technical users, this form is now general in the United States, though sulphur is still occasionally seen. In the rest of the world, it is still sulphur (Calvert 2002).

The Old Saxon sweval, Old English swefel, Old High German swebal, Gothic swibls are difficult to separate from the Latin sulphur. Maybe there was a Germanic basic from *swelhla which was combined with the Indo-Germanic root *swel (which has to do with smoke, burn slowly).

• Japanese: The two Chinese characters are 硫 ryuu = Sulphur 黄 and kou ou = yellow.

 

• Mary Elvira Weeks, Discovery of the Elements, comp. rev. by Henry M. Leicester (Easton, Pa.: Journal of Chemical Education, 1968), pp. 51-57.
• James B. Calvert, "Sulphur" 2002 (on-line).