The weird ways the elements got their names

Where do our words for the chemical elements come from? The answers are certain to surprise you. In this linguistic tour of the periodic table, discover:
🤷 Whether it's aluminUM or aluminIUM
🥇 Why the chemical symbol for gold is Au, not Go
🧌 The secret mythical figures hiding in the periodic table
🌍 Which place has the most elements named after it (you won't guess)
So let's get in our element, and explore the fascinating stories behind our names for the elements.
Check me out online, on Twitter & TikTok:
robwords.com
/ robwordsyt
/ robwords
==CHAPTERS==
0:00 Introduction
0:42 Hydrogen, Oxygen and friends
2:40 Helium & Aluminium
4:33 Carbon, Gold, Silver, Mercury
6:55 Ytterby elements
9:35 Named after places
10:29 Mythology elements
12:47 Named for characteristics
13:46 Named after people
14:13 Confusing chemical symbols
15:07 Interrupted by dog

[@vde1846]

In Swedish Hydrogen and Oxygen are called "Väte" and "Syre" respectively, which are also translations of the Greek terms since rendered in English they'd be something like "Wetter" and "Sourer" i.e. "that which wets" and "that which sours."

[@beeble2003]

I think you mean "sourer". Oxygen is "Sauerstoff" (sour stuff) in German, too.

[@mellertid]

Then there is Nitrogen: Kväve, from kväva = suffocate.

[@paulbrennan4163]

Coolt! 🙂

[@SpiritmanProductions]

@@UCKY5 In Dutch, 'stof' has multiple meanings. In element names, it means 'material', not 'stuff' or 'dust'. ;)

[@elricthebald870]

​@@UCKY5 Dont forget 'koolstof' (carbon): coal stuff.

[@markmcgoveran6811]

I'm an engineer and it would be delightful if you would do a full version of this and discuss each element in order on a separate video for people who aren't bored easily. This is kind of like a spreadsheet with holes in it.

[@lewisgiles8855]

Agreed

[@MissingRaptor]

I would love to watch a video like this 😃

[@markmcgoveran6811]

@@Sam-ey1nn I wasn't referencing that somebody hasn't discussed every element on the periodic table to death three times already. I wanted to see this view or viewpoint or angle on the periodic table complete and filled out with every element where the name came from a little history.

[@pierreplourde]

I second this!

[@sogghartha]

@@markmcgoveran6811 I think that goes beyond his scope, he's a words guy, not a chemistry guy

[@gordonbrinkmann]

Actually, the element Tungsten is not called Wolfrahm in German, but Wolfram. And -ram in this case has nothing to do with white fluffy cream, the word rām is Middle High German meaning grime, soot or dirt because the easy to grate mineral resembles grime.

[@Enyavar1]

came here to write this, thankful you posted it already

[@malinpetersson4182]

I always thought it was funny that it's called tungsten in English, a Swedish word, but in Swedish we say wolfram, like in German 😅

[@LeSetteMelediEva]

Are you saying Wolfram is not "wolf's cream" but "wolf's poo"? That's even more hilarious XD

[@gordonbrinkmann]

@@LeSetteMelediEva No, I mean the black carbon powder after you burned something... not a native English speaker so I don't know how it's translated best.

[@LeSetteMelediEva]

@@gordonbrinkmann I'm not native english either, I was trying to toss a very bad pun XD XD XD XD

[@JayForeman]

I bloody love this channel! Found you a few days ago and have been bingeing since. I noticed you mentioned you went to York Uni. Any chance you studied linguistics there? (If so, snap!!)

[@RobWords]

Hi Jay! No, I didn't do linguistics, I did English, but we were there at the same time. I interviewed you a couple of times for the student radio station. I was (and remain) a fan! "Calypso, Calypso, filled with sugar and E163"

[@marvelfan3148]

I cannot believe this, you both went to the same uni, wowo!!!! You are both amazing, I too just discovered RobWords and am a Jay Foreman fan - best part of KZbin by far! Just starting my upcoming RobWords binge, never knew how much I needed these etymology videos 😄

[@JayForeman]

@@RobWords I *KNEW* you looked familiar!! How embarrassing! 😮 In my defence, it’s been nearly 20 years. Hope all’s well with you!

[@h60memo]

I noticed this channel pop up in my recommendeds the other day as well. Good stuff!

[@RobWords]

You're entirely forgiven. Lovely to hear from you now!

[@jonathannash8471]

I really think you should've mentioned Oganesson especially, notable for being the only element named after someone still alive today. Also it, along with Seaborgium, is the only element that was named after someone who was still alive at time of naming.

[@mister_i9245]

Arguably Gallium was named after its discoverer, though in a roundabout way. It was discovered by a guy named lecoq which is french for "the chicken" and gallium could come from gallus (latin for chicken) rather than gaul.

[@thomasfevre9515]

Both worked in the teams that discovered the most recent elements. The places where they have been discovered are also immortalized as elements (one lab in California and one near moscow iirc)

[@beeble2003]

@@thomasfevre9515 Well, the Lawrencium Berkelium and Lawrencium Livermorium National Laboratories in Californium, United States of Americium are involved in the names of multiple elements. Dubnium is named after the Joint Institute for Nuclear Research in Dubna which is, as you say, near Moscow.

[@thomasfevre9515]

@@beeble2003 thank you, i remembered californium and moscovium but the rest eluded me.

[@theoldengineer1946]

@@beeble2003 Glenn T. Seaborg could be contacted using an address consisting entirely of elements: Seaborgium, Lawrencium, Berkelium, Californium, Americium

[@luketolley5734]

Another reason behind the name of tantalum is that it's very resistant to being dissolved in acids. Just like Tantalus was in water but couldn't interact with it, tantalum can be in acid and not interact with it.

[@MountainFisher]

I designed some acid tanks for a plating company and having worked my way through college as a welder I tig welded the tantalum tanks using sheared strips of the metal as filler rod.

[@RobWords]

I missed this and much prefer this explanation. Thank you.

[@moonhunter9993]

interesting

[@sydhenderson6753]

@shalomshalom8715 Australia=australis=south.

[@iDontReallyKnowTbh]

14:55 honestly the best part about tungsten is that while it is a Swedish word, the Swedish word for the element is Wolfram, while in almost every other country it’s Tungsten. Kinda funny how despite it being a Swedish word, it’s not the Swedish word for the element

[@doommarauder3532]

Uh.. no? At no point have I heard Tungsten been called wolfram in sweden. I've only lived here my entire life. Its tungsten.

[@andreykarbinovskiy430]

It's Volfram (Вольфрам) in Russian

[@iDontReallyKnowTbh]

@@doommarauder3532 check the Swedish periodic table you numbskull

[@radixverum1940]

@@doommarauder3532 Well, I've also lived in Sweden all my life and have never heard this element called anything but volfram. If you look up "tungsten" in Swedish Wikipedia, you'll find it desribed as "an earlier name of an element - see volfram". The entry for volfram in Swedish Wikipedia starts with the description "volfram is a metallic element discovered in 1783 by Carl Wilhelm Scheele".

[@midston5843]

@@radixverum1940 They don't mean it was used as the Swedish name. They mean the name derives from Swedish.

[@Mikaboba100]

I have a seven year old daughter who taught herself to read by the time she was three - with, quite literally, zero help from me, as she had decided that only she would be the one to read herself stories. Her love of words hasn't diminished one bit as she's grown older. So I just wanted to say, thank you Rob, for this channel and answering the plethora of "word questions" that she has. She loves these videos so much.

[@greywolf7577]

She must be getting help from somewhere. Otherwise, how would she know which sounds go with which letters?

[@Mikaboba100]

@@greywolf7577 she put subtitles on everything and used to fall asleep listening to anything that taught phonics.

[@rosemorris7912]

She is what neuorscientists and psychologists call neurotypical hyperlexic. Congratulations on having such a talented daughter!

[@Mikaboba100]

@@rosemorris7912 very likely a little autistic too - though incredibly fascinating 😉 Interestingly she doesn't spell her words in writing as well as she can read them. As far as reading goes, there's not a word that's stumped her so far!

[@melissasalasblair5273]

My Dad told me when I was very, very young to become besties w/ words, and to know their duality as well, and I've been asking questions about them ever since 🌸🍓❣️😁

[@azounx]

Sodium/Natrium is something that many of us non-native speakers of English need to remember, simply because you wouldn't expect English to use a different name that's also Latin-looking.

[@TheRavenir]

Indeed, most non-Romance languages use a variant of "Kalium" for "potassium" and a variant of "Natrium" for "sodium". That's the case in German, for example.

[@arthur_p_dent]

@@TheRavenir true, but oddly enough potassium carbonate ("Kaliumcarbonat") is also named "Pottasche" in German. The sound being similar to "potassium" is no coincidence.

[@yura2424]

@@arthur_p_dent Potassium carbonate was originally extracted from ashes. Pot Ash Pot-Ash-ium

[@arthur_p_dent]

@@yura2424 I know. Just didn't care to dive into the details here. "potash" is also an old English word, describing the same circumstance.

[@thorstenjaspert9394]

I am lab operator. I often wondered where the names of the elements come from. Why we use in science not everywhere the same words ? It would make the chemical wolrd easier. Why Potassium in English and Kalium in German? The K is the Symbol for Kalium. Natrim Symbol Na - Sodium? Confusing.

[@dumbalek6001]

Here's an obligatory Polish comment to thank you for pointing out that Maria Skłodowska-Curie was not, in fact, French. She was essentially a refugee who fled Poland in times of Russian occupation to seek education. She was deeply patriotic (as we can see by the element she has named) and very distraught she had to leave the country. It's quite sad that now most of the world think she's french, because she married a French man and Polish names look too scary to pronounce for most foreigners :P To my best knowledge she insisted to keep her Polish maiden name and underlined herself that she's Polish, not French. There's a very interesting article about her relationship with her homeland : "Polonium, Radioactivity & Elephants: How Poland Shaped Maria Skłodowska-Curie (& How She Shaped Poland)". And also as far as Polish names go, this one is not that hard to pronounce! It's often just the spelling that looks hard - it's pronounced: Skwo-dov-ska.

[@calahan59]

She was french, just deal with it.... Like Chopin.

[@ahmedlateef8669]

the etymology of potassium is very interesting. potassium was known early on to alchemists for making soap, and was isolated by using wood ash aka pot ash (hence the name potassium pronounced pot-ash-ium). Kalium, the Latin name, comes from the word alkali, which comes from the Arabic scholars who worked with the element, who called it al-qalyah, which means plant ash. so the name and symbol for potassium comes from it's early use in soap making by deriving it from ashes.

[@moonhunter9993]

ooh, interesting

[@w0ttheh3ll]

Potash is/was also used in glass making. Historically, huge amounts of hardwood trees were burnt to ash for the glass industry, including in North America and the Black Forest in Germany.

[@melissasalasblair5273]

I love alchemy in all of its forms 💭🌌❣️

[@HappyCodingZX]

wow, I was taught at school that the name derived from Kali, the hindu goddess of fire, which made it my favourite. Still, the Arabic origin is equally interesting.

[@isilder]

Same with Calcium... the symbol for Calcium should be K or Ka... ??? but it got the updated symbol to go with the updated name.

[@mokuRat]

10:25 Nihonium is also named after Japan! Nihon (or Nippon) is the actual Japanese name for the country

[@wladjarosz345]

and he forgot as well another old country en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ruthenia

[@nanamacapagal8342]

Let's not forget Livermorium either, named after Livermore, California

[@renaminginprogress6903]

I feel it necessary to submit that I love your channel. Your video style has the perfect mix of informative and entertaining. Your dry wit and cheesy puns warm my heart and make learning fun and easy. Don't never stop stopping, Rob.

[@RobWords]

That's lovely to hear, thank you

[@MrDavidMcNick]

I've spent the last few days just binging through them all. Satisfying videos and oddly addictive.

[@MarkusGopfert11]

I absolutely agree.

[@samuelthecamel]

That quadruple negative makes my brain hurt. Otherwise, very wholesome

[@paddyhalfmonkey]

Well said and for me the channel is nice to watch as it's delivered in a calm way...easy to watch

[@DominoIdiot]

I actually live in Ytterby and I could see my house on Google in your video. Everyone on the island of Resarö is well aware of the significance of the mine and the elements that was discovered here.

[@perjohanaxell9862]

It's actually quite cool that little Sweden has so many elements discovered here.

[@Wizard0fDogs]

8:55 Ah! Ytterby jumpscare in the middle of taking about Tantalum

[@Chrischi3TutorialLPs]

Here's an interesting fact about Cobalt: The miners who mined it thought that the cobalt was cursed by, well, kobolds. However, kobolds weren't completely malevolent creatures, either. It is said that, if you left them offerings, they would actually protect you by knocking on the walls of the mineshafts from the other side if the shaft was about to collapse. The origin of this superstition is thought to be the fact that certain types of rock, when under enough strain (such as they might experience during an impending cave in), would give off a distinctive knocking sound, which the miners learned to recognize as a sign of danger.

[@norweedrecords]

3:50 in Polish (my mother tongue) "aluminium" is a word for technically clean, extracted aluminum, with 99.95 - 99.955% of the chemical element. and the chemical element itself, in Polish is called "glin" (pronounced "gleen"). so "glin" is the theoretical term for the element, and "aluminium" is a practical term for the closest substance you can get to the chemical element.

[@yura2424]

"Glin" sounds like it came from the word "Glina" = "clay" Aluminum is made from clay. Pure clay is Al2O3

[@elpolaco7654]

'Aluminium' according to my dictionaries can be used as a synonym for 'glin' too. And 'glin' comes from the word 'glina' (clay), because aluminium compounds occur in all types of clay and aluminium is extracted from them. Polish, Czech and Slovak are the few exceptions, where the official name for aluminium is different from that in other European languages.

[@norweedrecords]

you both are right, I was actually using Wikipedia as my reference for the technical meaning of the word "aluminium", but in everyday life they can be synonyms. and in Polish schools, I can tell, they rather call the chemical element "glin" than "aluminium".

[@slowanddeliberate6893]

Bauxite

[@errorist68]

​@@yura2424ancient Greek, άργυρος (árgiros) = silver, άργυλος (argylos) = clay. Can't be a coincidence

[@pyglik2296]

When I learned chemistry in middle school and had to remember the symbols for the elements, I looked into how they are called in latin to help me remember why it's Ag, Au, Fe or Cu. Also, in Polish, the oxygen has an interesting name of "tlen". It comes from the word "tlić" (smolder), because it is needed to burn. Before the mid 19-th century thogh, it was called "kwasoród", which is a direct translation from latin.

[@teolinek]

In Czech, oxygen is called "kyslík (compare with the Polish word "kiszony," meaning "pickled" or "sour").

[@achtsekundenfurz7876]

100% agree, Poland has the most polish(ed) language. English should follow suit and call oxygen "burnium."

[@greywolf7577]

My high school chemistry teacher says that the way you remember the symbol for silver and gold is to think that if you get your silver stolen, you say "aww gee" (AG) and if you get your gold stolen, you chase after the person and say "Hey you!" (AU).

[@errorist68]

Silver as an element got its current name from the Indo-European root "arg-u-ro" (= shiny metal) and is related to the Sanskrit word arj-una (= light, luminous). In addition to άργυρος (árgiros) in Greek, this same Indo-European root also passed into Latin, the word argentum, which in turn passed down to the rest of the Latin languages (argent in French meaning both silver and money, and argento in Italian). Similarly to Argentina having received its name from the Latin argentum, Arizona also got its name from the Aztec ariziuma, also meaning silver.

[@bobbuethe1477]

Trivia factoid: In Edgar Rice Burroughs' "John Carter of Mars" stories, the capitol city of Mars (or Barsoom, as the natives called it) was named Helium. In creating Superman, Jerome Siegel took some inspiration from John Carter, who was an Earthman who had superior strength and could leap great distances due to the lesser gravity of Mars. As a wink to ENB readers, Siegel named Superman's home planet after a different noble gas, Krypton. (Source: former Superman editor Julius Schwartz.)

[@wernerfritsch6436]

Beryllium is named after the mineral Beryll which was used for optical lenses. The German word "Brille" is related to that.

[@RobWords]

Superb! Thanks for that.

[@SteelJM1]

Hmm. Does that share any etymology with the word "Braille"?

[@moonhunter9993]

Interesting

[@piotrbasnik3197]

@@SteelJM1 I think it comes from the name of the guy who invented it (L. Braille)

[@SteelJM1]

@@piotrbasnik3197 Dang. Just a coincidence then.

[@shangobunni5]

The amount of work that obviously goes into writing RobWords episodes is impressive. All the rhymes, puns, alliteration, references, and connections you make between words, idioms, and other expressions is just - Wow! That you can pack so much word play into one relatively short video is mind-boggling. Keep up the great work! ❤😊👍

[@AndrasBalintBoroczky]

10:24 You forgot nihonium. That name comes from Japan literally meaning Japan (nihon, 日本)

[@KitTheAnkafolk]

He also forgot Rhenium :((((

[@christ2381]

Again very interesting! I read that Wolfram derives from "ram" which means "soot" because the mineral easily breaks into a black powder. This mineral was a problem in tin extraction because it "ate" the ore like a wolf eats sheep. The latin word is lupi spuma = wolf's foam.

[@weshard1]

Do an episode on the origin of the names of the eons, eras, periods, and epochs of the geological timescale. Many are interesting.

[@Mercure250]

Interestingly, a lot of them come from places in Wales, iirc

[@weshard1]

@@Mercure250 Yes, the Silurian and Ordovician periods got their names from Celtic tribes, the Silures, and Ordovices, respectively. I’m a Welshman myself.

[@weshard1]

@@Mercure250 And, of course, the Cambrian period, after the Cambrian mountains of Mid Wales.

[@Mercure250]

@@weshard1 Yeah, I remember looking these up and I was surprised that so many of them were straight up named after random places around the world, and I had some "Oh of course!" moments with some of them (notably, Devonian, Jurassic, and Permian)

[@eVill420]

​​@@Mercure250they really just wanted to represent Wales there 😂 I love how I didn't connect the dots when I was Learning about Welsh kingdoms 🤣😭

[@cHVF]

I can't think of many other channels that consistently deliver such a high [information/time] ratio. Thank you!

[@HappyCat-142]

LOVE the humour. Wish he started with Mendelevium as the discoverer of the table, and mentioned the latin names for Sn, K, Fe

[@w0ttheh3ll]

Helium ends with "um" because the discoverers expected it to be a metal like most elements are (they didn't have a physical sample of the stuff since they discovered it by analysing sunlight). Note that all the other noble gas names end with "on".

[@globingoblin8625]

5:56 Argentina (and the masculine form argentino) can actually be used as adjectives in Spanish to refer to something made of silver! Something similar happens with aurum, we have áureo and áurea

[@lofdan]

De aurum proviene directamente oro, áureo es una palabra tomada. En español antiguo también existió "ariento", heredada del latín argentum. De hecho, en el reino de Castilla hubo una moneda llamada arienzo < ARGENTEUM, literalmente "la de plata".

[@frankstrawnation]

For example, "the golden ratio" is "la proporción áurea".

[@nnirr1]

Is Aurum related to the word Aura?

[@qugart.]

@@nnirr1 Huh....I kinda tracked it back a bit. Aura is derived from the greek αὔρα which means a breeze, cool air in motion. Whereas aurum derrives from the earlier latin form ausum. And that came from the also latin word audeo meaning "I dare". And that came from the proto-Italic awidēō meaning "wanting much" or greed. There is also the latin word avidus. So no, no relation I guess. The one is a small breeze, the other one greed.

[@neekk040]

huh i thought argentino was an adjective to refer to a man with a large nose ;)

[@1zaj34]

With each new video, I'm becoming more and more of a fan. Great work. 🤗 I have the feeling, that one element, although appearing in a list at 14:06, should have gotten a mention of its own. Mendelevium is named after the guy, who came up with the periodic table in the 1st place.

[@zanedobler]

The gold jumpscare actually hurt my entire nervous system.

[@trynyoutube]

KZbin: RobWords: Gold! Singer: Go-- (Ad starts)

[@ragnkja]

Vanadium is actually named after Freya’s clan of gods, the Vanir.

[@vde1846]

Vanadis is the main epithet for Freya (actually Freya itself is an epithet, meaning "Lady"). A Dis is a lesser female divinity of some sort, like the ruling spirit (Rå) of a particular forest or landform, and both the Norns and the Valkyries are Disir. The title Vanadis presumably harkens back to a time when Freya and Odins wife Frigg was the same character (Frigg just means "Love," its the same "fri" as in friend, since a friend is someone who has a loving disposition towards you), and so as the lady and housekeeper of Valhalla she would be the leader of the Valkyries, hence she is the Vane who is also a Dis.

[@DawnDavidson]

@@vde1846 Awesome! Thank you!

[@brucekish7576]

Beryllium (Be) and Erbium (Er), when combined, create the chemical compound "Beer."

[@chrislove7115]

Arsenic, like nitrogen, forms aromatic 5 membered rings. For nitrogen these are called az-oles , think az from azole as per the French for Nitrogen. The Arsenic analogues take the ars- root, with the -ole suffix...

[@sergep71]

@RobWords I don't know if you look at comments from something you posted a year ago, but this American Spandau Ballet fan that was a teenager in the 80s fully appreciated your "Gold" joke.

[@kill3stdayz910]

Funny you mentioned Boron at the end. Watching Chernobyl series, one of the main elements used to slow down the runaway reaction was boron poured over the top of the open reactor!

[@johnlumsden9102]

There is a lot of basalt rock in our area and it's called trap rock because of the difficulty of extracting the copper.

[@historybuff7491]

Quick silver meaning liquid silver is fine. It does mean that. But in older forms of English, quick had more of an sense of living, which also applied to Murcury. When at room tempts, Murcury is liquid and silvery looking, but it will pool up and move at the slightest vibration while stil trying to stay in that pooling. It looks alive in that state.

[@arthur_p_dent]

Correct. Same in German btw, where the name of the element is "Quecksilber". The word "queck" or "quick" no longer exists in modern German, but there does exist the adjective "quicklebendig". "lebendig" means "alive" and "quicklebendig" is basically the same, only with greater emphasis. Of course, we also have the old meaning of "quick" = "alive" in German "erquicken" and English "quicken" (as in religious talk like "he quickens my soul".)

[@ferretyluv]

True, hence the word “quickening” and the quick of the nail.

[@paulmay396]

@@ferretyluv and also quicklime and the movie 'The Quick and the Dead'

[@okaro6595]

In Finnish it is "elohopea" (living sliver). In Estonian it is "elavhõbe"

[@beeble2003]

@@paulmay396 The phrase "the quick and the dead" dates back to Tyndale's English translation of the Bible in the 1500s...

[@danielvanrooyen2785]

Hmm... As a Physicist (Chemist) I need to admit that I learned "more" about the periodic table than ever before :) Thanks! Brilliantly done!!

[@Goatcha_M]

Finishing with Wolf's Cream and a cream coloured dog is actually a pretty good bit of serendipity.

[@GalileosTelescope]

You missed the opportunity to include Arabic etymologies. I believe the K of potassium comes from the Arabic word potash: kali. Which is also from where we get alkali. Also boron comes from Arabic and the old word for nitrogen azote (still used in some languages like French).

[@Hiznogood]

6:47 Still called Kvicksilver here in Sweden. The only Mercury we know here is either the fabulous singer or the outboard engine.😉

[@HattmannenNilsson]

Interestingly, while you English speakers go around calling it a heavy stone in Swedish, we Swedes do not call it Tungsten, but instead Volfram. As a side note, Boron is, in spite of its name, actually a quite interesting element.

[@okaro6595]

Boron is Borium in Latin. It is easy to confuse it with Bohrium.

[@BlameThande]

I'm a chemist and this is a fascinating topic. It's interesting to think that if things had gone a little differently, we could be talking about aquaform and muriatine instead of hydrogen and chlorine.

[@joegrey9807]

Another chemical 'gen' word is halogen ('salt maker') which refers to the Group 7 elements of the periodic table: fluorine, chlorine, bromine, iodine and astatine.

[@patrickmurphy3048]

Aren't those all names for girls in the southern states of the USA

[@ghoust592]

its group 17th, also halogens are the most electronegative elements, that's why their salts are very stable

[@undyingbutterfly6087]

LOVE the additional information you gave

[@idaornstein1305]

Rob, mate you are bloody brilliant. More of this please. As I have lived in Athens Greece and have found Greek being a most fascinating language and for an English speaker was challenging to get a handle on. Greek words or roots of this wonderfully rich language is everywhere in other languages. Most of not all medical terms are Greek I believe.

[@Ruhrpottpatriot]

Since you already mentioned "Wasserstoff" for Hydrogen: Oxygen is called "Sauerstoff" in German, sauer translates to sour, or... acid/acidic. An acid is called "Säure" and belongs to the same word family as sauer. /edit: Wolfram is not quite correct. The "Wolf" part comes from the fact that when the element was discovered in the 16th century, it "ate tin like a wolf". The "ram" part comes from middle high German "rām". This word is the origin for the modern word "Rahm", but it also means "ruß" or soot. Why is this important? Well, because if you take Wolframit [(Fe,Mn)WO4] you can very easily grind it into black powder. So Tungsten is an element that eats tin and looks like your chimney after you put in damp wood. P.S. On that note: Tungsten didn't actually describe the element back when English, French and Italian introduced that word and took it from Swedish (as described in the video), the element they were referring to was calcium tungstate and the swedes called the same element "volfram".

[@teriberk1983]

The 3rd element with that ending "stoff" is the Stickstoff in German. Though I can't figure out what "Stick" stands for.

[@Ruhrpottpatriot]

@@teriberk1983 "Stick" comes from "ersticken", which translates to "suffocate", but the meaning is rather "doesn't support life" or "suffocates life". That's why the earliest French name was "azôte", an almost direct translation of "ersticken". The English Name Nitrogen is loaned from the French "nitrogène", taken from Latin "nitrogenium", which in turn comes from Greek "nítron", which describes a brine and was chosen after it was discovered that saltpetre/nitre and nitric acid are nitrogen compounds (which is also the reason why early names for nitrogen were "Salpeterbildner" or "saltpetre maker")

[@teriberk1983]

@@Ruhrpottpatriot I wouldn't really guess that "Stick" would have something to do with suffocation. The word azôte sounds like something which could be deadly. If you only change the z with t and it becomes atôte and that suddenly looks like töten which means to kill in German.

[@ScheissPunk]

I would guess that "ersticken" has the root "stecken" which can mean "tuck in" but also "stick" and is also used as "plug in" in "einstecken". I think they might have the same origin?

[@Ruhrpottpatriot]

​@@ScheissPunk Ersticken comes from old high German irsticken, while stecken comes from old high german stecken (yes, it didn't change).

[@Primitarian]

There was a joke during the 1950s that one particular research facility was creating so many new elements that they would appear as follows in the Periodic Table: Universitium, Ofium, Californium, Berkelium

[@jonathannash8471]

Big up Kit Chapman.

[@WereDictionary]

You mentioned Hydrogen = Wasserstoff but German has three more of the early elements with names like that: Oxygen = Sauerstoff = sour stuff which relates to acids (sauer is the ajdective to Säure, the german word for acid) Carbon = Kohlenstoff = coal stuff Nitrogen = Stickstoff = choking stuff (because it chokes out fires I guess).

[@retiredtom1654]

During my high school days I didn't have a clue about the periodic table's use. After watching your short video I gained more knowledge about it than ever before. Keep up the good work by educating me and others.

[@tauriusmagnamus3281]

In the medical field, -ium is translated as "stuff". 'pericardium' : stuff around heart. Latin is just simple words that sound exotic when put together. :P

[@alias1129]

Actual translation from Greek: "peri" (anc. Greek=surrounding) + "card" (kardia/cardia=heart) + ium suffix. Altogether pericardium = tissue/layer surrounding the heart. Same goes for epicardium from anc. Greek. "epi" meaning on top of/nearby, myocardium from anc. Greek "mys"/"myo" referring to muscle and finally endocardium again from anc. Greek, "endo" (innermost/inside).

[@tinyhammertoksvig8218]

Funny thing is, Tungsten isnt even called that in Swedish. Its called Wolfram.

[@okaro6595]

Actually Volfram.Tungsten was the rock from which it was extracted. Remember metals generally do not exist in pure form but as oxides.

[@longhohoang2222]

I just love how you switch between the elements so seamlessly

[@JCtheMusicMan_]

The KZbin algorithm introduced your content to me several times and it usually knows what I might be interested in so I gave it a go. I am delighted to have found a kindred curious spirit who has the knowledge and history of how languages and phrases came to be. Excellent presentations!

[@chicagotypewriter2094]

I’ve browsed the Royal Institute of Chemistry’s Periodic Table so I knew a bunch of these, but this video was fantastic! Love the classic British humor, would love to see all of the Table covered!

[@rawbhonn7715]

I find Rob’s videos both informative and entertaining and I’m glad to have found this channel. I’ve appreciated the study of etymology for a number of years as a hobby not academically.

[@matthewrippingsby5384]

These are some of the most consistently enjoyable and professional vids on any subject on KZbin, Rob: thanks!

[@AnnoyedSonic]

7:40 Dude literally does a stitch impression and that made me laugh so hard

[@MarkusGopfert11]

The topic has bothered me for years. In German, sodium and potassium are called "Natrium" and "Kalium" like in the original Latin words and not like the English counterpart. That's why the symbols Na and K happen to fit with German names. That's why I thought the two elements had German origins at school. The element bismuth is also called "Wismut" in German. Wismut is a former East German mining company that mined uranium for the USSR. So it has nothing to do with the element "bismuth". At school I also always thought that the company was mining bismuth.

[@okaro6595]

There is no original Latin name. Potassium was first extracted by Humphrey Davy in 1807 and he named it Potassium. However, ten years earlier Martin Heinrich Klaproth had found that there is some new element and he suggested "kali" as a name for it from "alkali" which is Arabic origin. However, they both come from ash. Potassium from pot ashes (potash) and alkali from plant ashes. From Wikipedia: "Kalium (lateinisch, aus arabisch القلية, DMG al-qalya ‚Pflanzenasche‘) ist ein chemisches Element mit dem Elementsymbol K (früher vereinzelt auch Ka) und der Ordnungszahl 19. "

[@beeble2003]

@@okaro6595 Yes, something as reactive as sodium or potassium could never have been known in Roman times.

[@AelwynMr]

​​​@@okaro6595 Yep! Al-qali means the ashes you get from burning saltwort, a common weed in Mediterranean beaches. This ash contains a lot of sodium and potassium carbonate and was cooked with oil to make soap. Two species of saltwort have the scientific names _Salsola soda_ and Salsola kali, names linked to "sodium" and "kalium"

[@eefaaf]

We use Natrium and Kalium as well in Dutch. Though there do exist outdated names Potas and Soda,as in 'dubbel koolzure soda', that is baking soda, sodium-bicarbonaat.

[@todortodorov940]

Potassium actually comes from *potash* itself from old Dutch / Germanic *potaschen* which was used back in the day to extract Kalium containing salts.

[@RoiHelektron]

As a Greek, I can truly say that all information related to the Greek language is 100% accurate. Thank you for respecting our (ancestors') language. I Love your channel!

[@billy2182]

Every word comes from the original Greek! (My Big Fat Greek Wedding) lol

[@5610winston]

Was Michael Flanders correct about _xenos_ being the word for guest as well as stranger?

[@RingJando]

You are the most organized and lucid moderator/educator that I have come across - Ta

[@winfriedtheis5767]

Definitely a particularly well polished gem amongst your videos! ❤

[@rikardottosson1272]

I like it that Tungsten is etymologically Swedish but we generally use wolfram still. Also the main incandescent lightbulb brand was Osram (for Osmium + Wolfram I think) with knock-off brand Tungsram going all-wolfram. I mean tungsten.

[@jolenethiessen357]

My first language is English but I was educated in French. Many of the "weird" symbols make perfect sense in French due to it's relationship to Latin! It wasn't until I was much older I noticed the incongruity. 😁

[@EmpoerterGeisterfahrer]

Rob Deine Videos sind wirklich eine perfekte Mischung aus unterhaltsam und lehrreich, und die Produktionsqualität ist auch noch top notch.

[@Nikioko]

10:12: Selenium get its name from the moon, and Tellurium, which is just under Selenium in the Periodic Table, from the earth. And Cerium is named after Ceres.

[@paulkinzer7661]

This was a great one! I knew lots of these, since they're fairly obvious, but that has always made me wonder about those that were not so obvious. Having you fill in lots of gaps in the fun way you always do was a treat.

[@HayTatsuko]

In which we find out that the names of elements really aren't always elementary, and that tungsten's symbol has maybe the most bizarre origin of the lot. It was a delight to enjoy this hopscotch journey through the table periodic!

[@koppadasao]

In Norwegian Hydrogen and Oxygen used to be call 'vannstoff', 'water stuff', and 'syre', 'acid'. Carbondioxid is still called 'kullsyre', 'coal acid', when used in soft drinks.

[@AnnabelleBeaudoin]

Such a great video as always ❤

[@TheOneSin7]

Thank you, as always, for the video! Little correction on Wolfram though, the rām has more of the meaning of soot or crud, because it can easily be ground and was blackish, like coal soot. The first name it got was indeed wolf cream, lupi spuma.

[@alexoakley226]

As a chemistry student and a linguistics enthusiast, this is the perfect video. Please do all elements!

[@Ostralucia]

As a fellow linguistics enthusiast and chemistry student, yes we need all the elements

[@moonhunter9993]

yes

[@Bethos1247-Arne]

"being in my element with this one", that is such a low pun ... but Rob can pull it off as a class act!

[@vidyashankar9616]

Thanks for the interesting and informative video. It reminded me of the periodic table, symbols for elements and the like, which I studied in my chemistry class quite a few years ago.

[@diegoreckholder945]

wolf's cream... and a dog makes a cameo 😆

[@father_flair]

You didn't have to to end on wolf's cream 🙈 I wasn't convinced that the -ram suffix comes from present-day "Rahm" because the affects pronounciation (and also because German does not just , you know, lose things). According to Wikipedia the two words come from the same Middle High German root, namely rām, which can mean "cream", but in this case means "soot" or "dirt" because tungsten can be ground into powder easily. As a side note: I was allowed a special periodic table with the element names on it during my exchange year in South Africa after convining the science teacher that it was unfair.

[@mellertid]

I have gathered that it refers to wolfs froth, allegedly some stage in purification was foamy.

[@father_flair]

@@mellertid, yes I saw that too but it doesn't really make sense etymologically because the German word for "froth(ing) at the mouth" would be "Schaum"/"schäumen" (which share a root with English "scum"). When checking some more sources, I found out that "Rahm" does not actually come from the same root as "-ram". So this has all been very interesting and insightful 🤗

[@tuhmater2985]

Some other location-based elements are Ruthenium, named after Ruthenia, the Latin word for Russia, and Rhenium, named after Rhenus, the Latin name for the Rhine River.

[@Wyraxx]

Ruthenia it’s latin name of Kingdom of Rus (not Russia): en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kingdom_of_Galicia%E2%80%93Volhynia

[@Keovar]

11:51 - Miners thought that earth spirits were in the mines which would spoil the iron, but what they were really getting was another metal mixed in with the iron. That other metal was cobalt, named after the kobolds who were believed to have put it there. Cobalt is now more valuable than iron because of its use in electronics like computers. In 1997, a D&D computer game called Baldur’s Gate came out, and one of the first adventures you embark on was to investigate why the iron in some mines has become brittle. As it turned out, small creatures called kobolds had been alchemically corrupting the iron ore which came from the mine. I’m not sure if the game developers meant to make the kobolds & bad iron connection or if it was a coincidence which turned out to be more appropriate than they knew. I do have a habit of digging into obscure meanings in creative works, and sometimes I find connections which weren’t conscious choices of the authors.

[@ericvaninwegen6384]

Fascinating! I have a background in Chemistry, but I didn't know all their etymologies. Great video!

[@ioannisaliazis]

Lovely video! Small correction as a Greek: αργός (for argon) means slow, not lazy / οσμή (for osmium) means smell, so smelly, not necessarily stinky 😊

[@toonedin]

So could we derive "Argo Naut" to mean "slow sailor" from the information you have just provided? I am a curious non-European speaker of the Indo part of the Indo-European language family

[@beeble2003]

@@toonedin Logical, but no. The Argonauts are named after their ship, the _Argo,_ and the ship was named after its builder, Argus.

[@toonedin]

@@beeble2003 Oh? A case of convergent (linguistic) evolution, could we say? Thanks for the clarification.

[@beeble2003]

@@toonedin I don't think so -- it's a Greek legend. I think it's just a coincidence, like "Washington" not having anything to do with washing.

[@keep-ukraine-free528]

@@beeble2003 Your comment raised the question in my mind of the etymology of the name Washington. As many last names began simply as the "of Town" form (identifying the location/city from where the person lived), and also that "ton" is an older form of "town" (ton in Old Germanic languages, tun in Old English), then maybe Washing-ton means "from the place of Washing" (from a town on a riverbank, where people went to wash things/themselves). So maybe "Washington" *does* have to do with (the place/town where people went for) washing??? This below reference gives two plausible theories for the name's origin. Both theories are unproven & unsubstantiated. One of those does match the above "washing" idea: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Washington,_Tyne_and_Wear#History

[@interarts2863]

Bromine would have been worth touching on. It is the only liquid element apart from Mercury, and has several Greek and Latin naming elements. It takes its name either from a Latin name for Bacchus (Greek Dionysus) for its red-brown wine color, and/or from the Greek for "stench", similar to Osmium. The Greek word may even refer to the specific kind of stench emitted by a male goat. This was an incredibly informative & interesting video though, really appreciated the incredible amount of work that must have gone into it to make so many complex and disparate concepts so accessible!

[@diedertspijkerboer]

I once learned that Barium is actually a medical term that hints at what to do with a patient when an operation fails.

[@driesvanheeswijk1633]

You always look so fresh in your videos, wow. Thanks for all of the great content, keep it up!

[@o_s-24]

Knowing Russian helped a lot with the elements with "strange" symbols. In Russian many names are still kept close to Latin like Kaliy (K) and Natriy (Na)

[@beeble2003]

Note that kalium and natrium aren't Latin names -- potassium and sodium are far too reactive to have been discovered in Roman times.

[@o_s-24]

@beeble2003 thanks for pointing that out. Na does come from Latin, but K comes from German/Arabic

[@LotsOfS]

Great video! I wouldn't mind a part 2 of this, where you explain the names of iron, tin, and lead, and not just their chemical symbols. Same for Arsenic and Sulfur, which you mentioned but did not actually talk about. Other elements I don't recall seeing are Phosphor, Silicon, and Calcium, which I think would all be interesting. Also why do the nobel gasses tend to end in -on instead of -um? So many questions still. Love the fact that Gold just means Yellow though

[@sydhenderson6753]

"on" is common for non-metals other than halogens: also Carbon, Boron and Silicon. Ramsey, who named them, used Greek words to name the noble gases, which is where the "on" came from. Helium is an exception since nobody knew it was a gas when it was discovered via the Sun's spectrum. Bismuth, arsenic and antimony were named before the convention, and nitrogen, oxygen and hydrogen by another system by Lavoisier.

[@ErmakBrovar]

Mendelevium - for Dmitry Mendeleev - Russian chemist who formulated the periodic law and created the periodic table, which is called Mendeleev’s table in Russian.

[@bobeczek01]

Yeah we say Tablica Mendelejewa in Polish

[@sarahnicholetts5655]

Wow! Thank you so much for this, it has made my understanding of the periodic table so much better

[@JaccovanSchaik]

Always thought that cesium should have been named "belgium" because a) it is above francium in the period table, and b) the "ium" suffix fits in so nicely.

[@beeble2003]

Seems reasonable, but we're not renaming rubidium after the Netherlands, OK?

[@danielterrazas]

Being a follower for a while now, seeing you as a presenter at DW was a pleasant surprise. I love all your content Rob.

[@shangobunni5]

A presenter at DW? Would you mind sharing more about that? I’d like to see if I can look it up.

[@VolkerBruggemann]

@@shangobunni5 Example: kzbin.info/www/bejne/l2bUpWice7R9opI

[@shangobunni5]

@@VolkerBruggemann Vielen Dank! I was going to ask if DW was Deutsche Welle, but I assumed in your comment it must have referred to something else that was more related to languages or etymology. I love DW! Thanks again for the link. Will definitely watch!

[@danielterrazas]

@@shangobunni5 I stumbled upon that Rob is an anchor at Deutsche Welle's news. That explains why he mostly records from Germany. You can follow the DW channel here on KZbin and with luck, you'll see him.

[@shangobunni5]

@@danielterrazas Thanks, in fact I do already follow DW (they have the best documentaries), but I had never seen Rob anchoring before. It was a treat - I’m a big fan of Ron’s work. 😊

[@kjc2987]

This was such a good video! I watched it myself and then we watched it again as a family. I knew some of these but it’s so fun how you can always learn new things hiding in language. Always love seeing a new video pop up from this channel

[@MichaelCarter-xo2qs]

Wow! Thank you! So very informative❤

[@Reconbox1001]

I appreciate every minute of work you put into these videos you make. Thank you for making them and sharing the knowledge 😊

[@laurencefraser]

While that um/ium in English (and other modern languages) does just mean 'element', my understanding is that it comes from the number of elements whose original common name was '(metal/stone/substance) from (place)', where (place) was the town or city that was the most well known source of the substance at the time. This was then rendered in Latin (that being the 'common tongue' of the scientific community), if it wasn't Latin already, resulting in a rather massive portion of the elements on the periodic table having that ending, and thus it being used by analogy for most newly discovered elements, even when they Weren't named for places.

[@duckpotat9818]

Partially correct. Now the convention is -um suffix is for metals like Titanium, Kalium, Ferrum, and Semi metals like Germanium etc. Yes, Helium is not a metal but we didn't know at the time. -ine suffix is for Halogens - Fluorine, Chlorine, Bromine etc. -on suffix is for Noble gases - Neon, Argon, Krypton, Xenon, Radon, and Oganesson. Also used in nonmetal solids like Boron, Carbon, and Silicon.

[@wassollderscheiss33]

The word 'Wolfram' certainly does not come from anything to do with cream but instead from WOLF-RAM (random access memory), because Wolfram is the material Wolves' memory modules are typically made out of.

[@dennisbloodnok2737]

In your list of elements named after people, you may have omitted samarium, another of the rare earths. It was named after the mineral from which it was isolated: samarskite. This, in turn, was named in honour of Colonel Samarsky-Bykhovets, a 19th Century Russian mining official. He is now in unexpectedly distinguished company.

[@sdega315]

A different twist for a great channel! As a science teacher, I want to acknowledge how awesome is the research you put into this video!! No small task to be sure.

[@azounx]

The River Plate is also named for silver.

[@_Diana_S]

La Plata

[@Enyavar1]

Is the "River Plate" the Rio de la Plata in Argentina? Then yes.

[@therealzilch]

Another typically fascinating episode. I'd just point out that "helios" is not only the Greek name for the god of the Sun, but also for just the Sun itself. cheers from sunny Vienna, Scott

[@unclecreepy4185]

One of my favorite elements is “Bromine” which gets its name from the Latin word “bromos” meaning stench. Hydrogenated vegetable oil (or partially hydrogenated) is when you add hydrogen to vegetable oil to make a liquid oil solid and spreadable. Mountain Dew use to add “Brominated vegetable oil” in their drink (so did other citrus based drinks, many off brands still use it). Which is when you add bromine to vegetable oil. Mountain Dew stopped using it in 2020.