Etymology
The name "boron" comes from the Arabic word for the mineral borax,(بورق, boraq) which was known before boron was ever extracted. The "-on" suffix is thought to have been taken from "carbon"; so the name can regarded as a portmanteau of "borax" and "carbon". Aluminium was named by Humphry Davy in the early 1800s. It is derived from the Greek word alumen, meaning bitter salt, or the Latin alum, the mineral. Gallium is derived from the Latin Gallia, referring to France, the place of its discovery. Indium comes from the Latin word indicum, meaning indigo dye, and refers to the element's prominent indigo spectroscopic line. Thallium, like indium, is named after the Greek word for the color of its spectroscopic line: thallos, meaning a green twig or shoot. "Ununtrium" is a temporary name assigned by the IUPAC (see IUPAC nomenclature), derived from the Latin names of the digits in the number 113.
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Famous quotes containing the word etymology:
“The universal principle of etymology in all languages: words are carried over from bodies and from the properties of bodies to express the things of the mind and spirit. The order of ideas must follow the order of things.”
—Giambattista Vico (1688–1744)
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—Stephen Bayley, British historian, art critic. “Taste: The Story of an Idea,” Taste: The Secret Meaning of Things, Random House (1991)