What are the Latin Names of Chemical Elements?

Scientists have adopted certain conventions regarding the chemical symbols for various elements. The symbol is the short form or abbreviated name of the element. Each element has a chemical symbol that is unique to it. An atom of an element is denoted by this symbol. For example, the symbol for Carbon is C. Many elements have their symbol derived from either the first letter [e.g., H for Hydrogen] or the first two letters [e.g., He for Helium] of their names. A few elements have symbols derived from their Latin names as given in the table below.
Element Symbol Latin Name Antimony Sb Stibium Copper Gold Iron Lead Mercury Potassium Silver Sodium Tin Tungsten Cu Au Fe Pb Hg K Ag Na Sn W Cuprum Aurum Ferrum Plumbum Hydragyrum Kalium Argentum Natrium Stannum Wolfram

The symbols of a chemical element are abbreviations that are used to denote a chemical element. Typically, they are one or two letters long with the first letter (only) capitalised; temporary names are three letters long. They are widely used in chemistry and they have been officially chosen by the International Union of Pure and Applied Chemistry. There are also some historical symbols that are currently not official any more.

A list of current, dated, as well as proposed and historical signs and symbols is included here with its signification. Also given is each element's atomic number, atomic mass or most stable isotope, group and period numbers on the periodic table, and etymology of the symbol.

A chemical element is a pure chemical substance consisting of one type of atom distinguished by itsatomic number, which is the number of protons in its nucleus. They are divided into metals, metalloids, and non-metals. Familiar examples of elements include carbon, oxygen (nonmetals), silicon, arsenic(metalloids), aluminium, iron, copper, gold, mercury, and lead (metals).

Atomic Number (z) 1

Name

Symbol

Year Discovered 1766

Discoverer

Derivation of Name/Symbol
From the Greek hydro for 'water' and genes for 'forming' as it burned in air to form water. From the Greek helios for 'sun'. It was discovered by spectroscopy during a solar eclipse in the sun's chromosphere. From the Latin lithos for 'stone' because lithium was thought to exist only in minerals as it was first found in the mineral petalite. From the Greek berryllos for 'beryl' the gemstone in which it was first found. From the Arabic buraq for 'white'. It was first isolated in an impure state by Louis-Joseph Gay-Lussac and LouisJacques Thenard, but it was Humphry Davy who first prepared pure boron using electrolysis. From the Latin carbo for 'charcoal'. In 1797, Smithson Tennant showed that diamond is pure carbon. From the Latin nitrium and Greek nitron for 'native soda' and genes for 'forming' because it is found in potassium nitrate, saltpeter or nitre or native soda.

hydrogen

Henry Cavendish Pierre-Jules-Cesar Janssen

helium

He

1868

History of the Elements of the Periodic Table 3 lithium Li 1818 Johan August Arfvedson Nicholas-Louis Vauquelin

beryllium

Be

1798

boron

1808 (isolated)

Humphry Davy

carbon

known since ancient times

nitrogen

1772

Daniel Rutherford

oxygen

1774

Joseph Priestly

>From the Greek oxys for 'acid' and genes for 'forming' since AntoineLaurent Lavoisier originally thought that oxygen was an acid producer because when he burnt phosphorus and sulfur and dissolved them in water they produced acids. From the Latin fluere for 'flow or flux' as the mineral fluorspar was used as a flux in metallurgy because

fluorine

1886 (isolated)

Ferdinand Frederic, Henri

Moissan

of its low melting point 10 neon Ne 1898

Sir William Ramsay, Morris
From the Greek neos for 'new'

M. Travers