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===Origins=== [[File:Pierre Curie et Marie Sklodowska Curie 1895.jpg|thumb|upright|Curium was named after [[Pierre Curie|Pierre]] and [[Marie Curie]].]] Nine elements were known by the [[Middle Ages]]: [[gold]], [[silver]], [[tin]], [[Mercury (element)|mercury]], [[copper]], [[lead]], [[iron]], [[sulfur]], and [[carbon]].<ref name=Davis>{{cite book|editor-last=Whitten|editor-first=Kenneth W.|first1=Raymond E.|last1=Davis|first2=George G.|last2=Stanley|first3=Larry M.|last3=Peck|chapter=Names of the elements|title=Chemistry|year=2007|publisher=Thomson Brooks/Cole|location=Belmont|isbn=9780495011965|pages=64–65|edition=8th|chapter-url-access=registration|chapter-url=https://archive.org/details/chemistry0000unse}}</ref> Mercury was named after the planet, but its symbol was derived from the Latin ''hydrargyrum'', which itself comes from the Greek ''υδράργυρος'', meaning liquid silver; mercury is also known as quicksilver in English.<ref name=Leigh/> The symbols for the other eight are derived from their Latin names.<ref name=Davis/> Systematic nomenclature began after [[Louis-Bernard Guyton de Morveau]] stated the need for "a constant method of denomination, which helps the intelligence and relieves the memory".<ref name=Koppenol>{{cite journal|first=W. H.|last=Koppenol |title=Naming of new elements (IUPAC Recommendations 2002) |journal=Pure and Applied Chemistry |volume=74|number=5|pages=787–791|year=2002 |doi=10.1351/pac200274050787|s2cid=95859397 |url=http://doc.rero.ch/record/295589/files/pac200274050787.pdf }} </ref> The resulting system was popularized by [[Antoine Lavoisier]]'s publication of ''Méthode de nomenclature chimique'' (Method of Chemical Nomenclature) in 1787. Lavoisier proposed that elements be named after their properties. For the next 125 years, most chemists followed this suggestion, using Greek and Latin roots to compose the names; for example, [[hydrogen]] ("water-producing"), [[oxygen]] ("acid-producing"), [[nitrogen]] ("soda-producing"), [[bromine]] ("stink"), and argon were based on Greek roots, while the names of [[iodine]] and [[chlorine]] were derived from the Greek words for their characteristic colors. [[Indium]], [[rubidium]], and [[thallium]] were similarly named for the colors of particular lines in their [[Emission spectrum|emission spectra]]. [[Iridium]], which forms compounds of many different colors, takes its name from ''iris'', the Latin for "rainbow".<ref name=Davis/> The [[noble gases]] have all been named for their origin or properties. [[Helium]] comes from the Greek ''helios'', meaning "Sun" because it was first detected as a line in the spectrum of the Sun (it is not known why the suffix ''-ium'', which is used for metals, was chosen).<ref>{{cite journal|author1-link=William B. Jensen|first=William B.|last=Jensen|title=Why Helium Ends in "-ium" |journal=Journal of Chemical Education |volume=81 |issue=7|pages=81–82 |year=2004 |url=http://www.che.uc.edu/Jensen/W.%20B.%20Jensen/Reprints/115.%20Helium.pdf |doi=10.1021/ed081p944 |access-date=4 November 2013|bibcode=2004JChEd..81..944J}}</ref> The other noble gases are [[neon]] ("new"), [[argon]] ("slow, lazy"), [[krypton]] ("hidden"), [[xenon]] ("stranger"), and [[radon]] ("from radium").<ref name=Enghag/> Many more elements have been given names that have little or nothing to do with their properties. Elements have been named for celestial bodies ([[helium]], [[selenium]], [[tellurium]], for the Sun, Moon, and Earth; [[cerium]] and [[palladium]] for [[Ceres (dwarf planet)|Ceres]] and [[2 Pallas|Pallas]], two [[asteroid]]s). They have been named for mythological figures, including [[Titan (mythology)|Titan]]s in general ([[titanium]]) and [[Prometheus]] in particular ([[promethium]]); Roman and Greek gods ([[uranium]], [[neptunium]], and [[plutonium]]) and their descendants ([[tantalum]] for [[Tantalus]], a son of Zeus, and [[niobium]] for [[Niobe]], a daughter of Tantalus); and Norse deities ([[vanadium]] for the goddess [[List of names of Freyja|Vanadis]] and [[thorium]] for the god [[Thor]]).<ref name=Enghag>{{cite book|last=Enghag|first=Per|chapter=7.1. Element names|title=Encyclopedia of the Elements Technical Data - History - Processing - Applications.|url=https://archive.org/details/encyclopediaelem00engh|url-access=limited|year=2004|publisher=Wiley-VCH|location=Weinheim|isbn=9783527612345|pages=[https://archive.org/details/encyclopediaelem00engh/page/n137 71]–78}}</ref> Some elements were named for aspects of the history of their discovery. In particular, [[technetium]] and [[promethium]] were so named because the first samples detected were [[Promethium#Discovery and synthesis of promethium metal|artificially synthesised]]; neither of the two has any isotope sufficiently stable to occur in nature on Earth in significant quantities. The [[Promethium#Discovery and synthesis of promethium metal|connection]] to the Titan Prometheus was that he had been fabled to have stolen fire from the gods for mankind. Discoverers of some elements named them after their home country or city. [[Marie Curie]] named [[polonium]] after [[Poland]]; [[ruthenium]], [[gallium]], [[germanium]], and [[lutetium]] were based on the Latin names for Russia, France, Germany, and Paris. Other elements are named after the place where they were discovered. Four elements — [[terbium]], [[erbium]], [[ytterbium]], and [[yttrium]] — were named after the Swedish village [[Ytterby]], where ores containing them were extracted.<ref name=Davis/> Other elements named after places are [[magnesium]] (after [[Magnesia (regional unit)|Magnesia]]), [[strontium]], [[scandium]], [[europium]], [[thulium]] (after an old Roman name for an unidentified northern region), [[holmium]], [[copper]] (derived from [[Cyprus]], where it was mined in the Roman era), [[hafnium]], [[rhenium]], [[americium]], [[berkelium]], [[californium]], and [[darmstadtium]].<ref name=Enghag/> For the elements up to 92 (uranium), naming elements after people was discouraged. The two exceptions are indirect, the elements being named after minerals that were themselves named after people. These were [[gadolinium]] (found in [[gadolinite]], named after the Finnish chemist [[Johan Gadolin]]) and [[samarium]] (the mineral [[samarskite]] was named after a Russian mining engineer, [[Vasili Samarsky-Bykhovets]]). Among the [[transuranium element]]s, this restriction was relaxed; there followed [[curium]] (after the Curies), [[einsteinium]] ([[Albert Einstein]]), [[fermium]] ([[Enrico Fermi]]), [[mendelevium]] ([[Dmitri Mendeleev]]), [[nobelium]] ([[Alfred Nobel]]) and [[lawrencium]] ([[Ernest Lawrence]]).<ref name=Enghag/><ref name=Nickon/>{{rp|320}}
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