WHAT'S IN THE NAME? IS IT JUST RANDOM OR.....

 

                We all have seen this periodic table ( happy family of elements) at least once in our life. Russian chemist Dimitri Mendeleev made this periodic table so that we can remember and learn about all the elements easily. The modern periodic table has seven periods and eighteen groups, elements from the same group have similar properties. Till now 118 elements have been discovered out of them 94 are found in nature and 24 are synthetic elements discovered by various scientists from nuclear reactions. Each of the elements has a different name. But have you ever thought why they have got those particular names? Was it just given randomly? Or it had been given on purpose? In this post, we will try to know about the names of the elements. so let's see what's in the name!!!

• HYDROGEN( 'H'- group 1, period 1):  It is a colourless, odourless, tasteless, non-toxic, highly combustible1 gas. Greek sword HYDRO means "water" and GENES means "forming". So hydrogen means Water-forming gas, because it produces water after getting burned.

  

  Hydrogen gas forming water

  
  
• HELIUM('He'- group 18, period 1): It is a colourless, odourless, tasteless, non-toxic, inert2, monoatomic3 gas. Greek word HELIOS means "sun". As Helium was first discovered in sun's corona so it was named as Helium. 

  

  The Sun
  

  
  
  
  
  
  

  

  Helium layer in sun

  
  
•  LITHIUM('Li'- group 1, period 2): It is a soft, silvery-white alkali4 metal. Greek word LITHOS means "stone. As it was discovered from a rock in a mine it has the name lithium.

  

  Lithium
  

  
  
• BERYLLIUM('Be'- group 2, period 2): It is a steel-grey, strong, lightweight, brittle5 and toxic alkaline earth metal. It is named after BERYLLOS which is the Greek name for the mineral beryl. Beryl was originally known as glucinium, which came from the Greek word glykys which means "Sweet" which reflects its taste. 

  

  Beryllium
  

  
  
• BORON('B'- group 13, period 2):  It is a hard and black coloured non-metallic solid usually with a high melting point. Its name comes from the Arabic word "BURAQ" or Persian word "BURAH" which means "White". They both were the name for Borax as boron was discovered from borax.

  

  Borax

  
  

  

  Boron

  
  

• CARBON("C"- group 14, period 2): It exists in many allotropes6 like- graphite, Diamond etc. But pure carbon is solid, non-metal, soft and dull grey or black in colour. The Latin word "CARBO" means "Coal" or "Charcoal" as it was first discovered from coal. 

  

  Different allotropes of carbon

  
  

  

  Carbon

  
  
• NITROGEN( "N"- group 15, period 2): Nitrogen is the fifth most abundant element of the universe. It is a colourless, odourless gas and our atmosphere mostly made up of this gas . Nitrogen is named after greek word NITRON which means 'Native soda' and GENES which means 'Forming'. 

• 

  Liquid nitrogen

• OXYGEN("O"- group 16, period 2): It is a colourless, odourless, highly reactive nonmetal and an oxidizing7 agent that forms oxides with most of the elements. Greek word OXY means 'acid' and GENES means 'forming'. So Oxygen means acid forming elements. It was called because early chemists thought that oxygen was necessary for all acids which is proven wrong by modern chemists. It is absolutely necessary element for all animals. 

  

  Liquid oxygen.

  
  
• FLUORINE("F"- group 17, period 2): It is a highly toxic pale yellow diatomic8 gas and it is extremely reactive non-metal.  It was discovered from Flourspar which is very useful for purifying metals as it combines with the unwanted part of the metal ore and allows the pure metal to flow. And for this eason it have gotten its name as the latin word FLUERE means 'to flow'.

Flurspar

Flourine gas

• NEON("Ne"- group 18, period 2): It is a noble gas which is colourless, odourless monoatomic  and non-toxic gas. Greek word NEOS means 'new'. When we apply electricity under high voltage in a sealed tube it glows in reddish-orange colour. 

Neon light. 

 

So we can see these elements got their cool names according to their characterestics. 

Picture credit: keywordteam.net.

Share your thoughts about this post in the comments and feel nfree so say if you see any room for improvement. 

To know more about the names of the componds stay tuned as this series is going to be continued. 

Thank you.

Foot-notes: 1.  combustible-Able to catch fire easily.

                    2.  inert- chemically inactive.

                    3.  monoatomic- made of only one atom.

                    4.  alkali- Base

                    5. Brittle- hard but liable to break easily

                    6. Allotropes- two or more differt physical forms in which an element exists.

                    7. Oxidizing agent- A substance that tends to bring about oxiation by being reduced and gaining electrons. 

                    8. Diatomic- consisting of two atoms

                    

 

SOURCES: 

https://periodic-table.com/neon/

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hydrogen

https://www.rsc.org/periodic-table/element/1/hydrogen

https://www.rsc.org/periodic-table/element/2/helium

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Helium

https://www.rsc.org/periodic-table/element/3/lithium

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lithium

https://www.livescience.com/28641-beryllium.html

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Beryllium

https://www.chemicool.com/elements/boron.html

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boron

https://www.livescience.com/28698-facts-about-carbon.html

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carbon

https://www.livescience.com/28726-nitrogen.html

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nitrogen

https://www.rsc.org/periodic-table/element/8/oxygen

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oxygen

https://www.livescience.com/28779-fluorine.html.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fluorine