WHAT’S IN A NAME? Harold M. Cobb* Metallurgical Consultant Kennett Square, Pennsylvania

lthough generally taken for granted, the names of metals can make an interesting study. Actually, metals are among the most thoroughly named things. They have a common name, such as “lead;” a chemical A symbol, which is usually the abbreviation of the Latin word for the metal, such as “Pb;” and the Latin name for the metal, such as “plumbum.” Then there is the atomic number, which dictates the location in the periodic table because it is the number of protons in the nucleus (82 in the case of lead).

Seven metals of antiquity By about 750 BC, the seven metals of antiquity had been discovered, recovered from ores in open Hafnium control rods are used in the nuclear reactor that powers the Los fires. These were gold, silver, lead, tin, iron, copper, Angeles-class fast attack submarine USS Jefferson City. Fast attack submarines and mercury. All of these names came from Anglo- are designed to seek and destroy enemy submarines and surface ships. (U.S. Navy photo by Photographer’s Mate 3rd Class Aaron Burd.) Saxon words with the same, or nearly the same spelling, except for copper and mercury. Copper German miners who found that metal in an ore that was named for the Isle of Cyprus where the metal they believed should contain copper. Vanadium was discovered, and mercury was named for the was named for the Scandinavian goddess Vanadis, planet. which was fortunate, since the earlier name of the The chemical symbols for these seven metals metal was “erythromium.” were Au for “aurum,” meaning “golden dawn;” Ag The naming game at times has become quite con- for argentum; Pb for plumbum, which means “soft tentious and long-debated. In some cases the choice metal;” Sn for stannum; Fe for ferrum; Cu for of a name was debated for years. For example, a cuprum; and Hg for hydragyrum, which means new mineral was discovered in Connecticut in the “liquid silver” in Greek. eighteenth century and named “columbite,” after “Columbia,” a synonym for America. A sample of Colors and countries columbite was sent to England where, in 1801, a Chromium, with the symbol Cr, was derived chemist discovered a new metal in the sample from the Greek “chroma,” meaning “color” because which he promptly named “columbium (Cb).” of the various colors of its compounds. “Ger- However, the metal was rediscovered in 1844 in manium” was named for the country of discovery, Germany and named “niobium” after Niobe, the but indium was named from “indigo blue,” a prin- daughter of Tantalus. The rationale was that the cipal color in the metal’s spectrum. metal was associated with tantalum in nature. After Hafnium, a little-known but critical metal for con- more than a century, the International Union of Pure trol rods in water-cooled nuclear reactors, was dis- and Applied Chemistry held a meeting in Paris at covered in Copenhagen, and might have been called which time it was ruled that the element should be “copenhagenium.” But the ancient name of Copen- called “niobium (Nb).” The metal is still called by hagen was “Havn,” meaning “harbor,” which was both names, and the principal source of the metal given the name “Hafnia” by the Romans. is still “columbite.” Yttrium was named for the town of Ytterby in At the same time, the chemists ruled on the de- Sweden, and rhenium was named for the province bate of “tungsten” vs “wolfram” by offering a com- of Rhineland. promise. The metal would be called “tungsten” but Selenium was named for the Greek “selene,” the symbol would be “W” for “wolframite,” a major meaning “moon,” and tellurium was named for the source. One for the books. Latin “tellus,” meaning “earth”. Nickel was named for a sprite named Nick by For more information: Harold Cobb, 117 Crosslands *Life Member, ASM International Drieve, Kennett Square, PA 19348; [email protected].

52 ADVANCED MATERIALS & PROCESSES/NOVEMBER-DECEMBER 2009