History and Etymology
In 1842 the Swedish chemist Baron Jöns Jakob Berzelius proposed the term "halogen" – ἅλς (háls), "salt" or "sea", and γεν- (gen-), from γίγνομαι (gígnomai), "come to be" – for the four elements (fluorine, chlorine, bromine, and iodine) that produce a sea-salt-like substance when they form a compound with a metal. The word "halogen" had actually first been proposed in 1811 by Johann Salomo Christoph Schweigger as a name for the newly discovered element chlorine, but Davy's proposed term for this element eventually won out, and Schweigger's term was kept at Berzelius' suggestion as the term for the element group that contains chlorine.
Read more about this topic: Halogen
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