Icelandic name for titanium:

A very difficult name to find, but none of them satisfied me.  

The metal has the greatest strenght to weight ratio of ALL metals. How can you express this with one, short adjective.  There is no linguistic community in the world's history where people found it necessary to form a special adjective that meant "hard and light" at the same time, something like "lérður (létt + harður). Titanium is the lightest element of the "iron-group of transition metals", scandium included, but scandium is more viewed upon as a rare-earth metal, like Y, La and the lanthanides.  The compound léttérni (léttur (light (weight)) + "érni" (i-shift of "járn" ("já" becomes "é").  "léttérni" must be an element lighter than iron. It can belong to the so-called "ferromagnetic triad", composed of "iron", "cobalt" and "nickel".

The name "titanium" was given by Martin Klaproth, in accordance with his views on chemical nomenclature in the counter-flow of the French chemical school, where they tried to name the element by its chemical properties. Since the German researcher himself noted the impossibility of determining the properties of a new element only by its oxide, he chose a name for it from mythology, by analogy with uranium that he had previously discovered.  It is, therefore, reasonable to base the Icelandic on the international word. 

First, I tried to find a name for the Titans in Icelandic: "forguðaglit" (lustre of pre-gods). I tried out "tímaguðsefni" (time-god-element, named after Kronos, the leader of the Titans, but made a terrible mistake here: Kronos is NOT the god of time, but the one of agriculture and his name goes back to the same indo-european root like the Iclandic "gróður". It is CHronos, which is the Greek god of time.  I should have done my homework better.  Another possibility is "Forseifingar" (Pre-olympians: for- (pre-) + seifingar (Seifur + "ingur", like "Skarphjaðningar" (family of "Skarphéðinn")). Every word derived from the name "Olympos" in Icelandic can be replaced by constructions with "Seifingar", the adjective "seifskur" or "seifneskur": "Seifingafjall", "seifskir leikar", seifskur kappi (olympian champion). The name for titanium would bewome: Forseifingamálmur, ... too long.

Then I tried some "comparative mythology": What are the equivalents of the Greek Titans in Old Nordic mythology.  Some scholars think of the Vanir (Wanes) and the Aesir (Aces) to be the equivalents of the Olympians and the Titans, but most would rather choose the "hrímþursar" (or "jötnar").  I tried "þyrsi" or "þursjárn/ þursérni ("þurs" + "érni" (i-shift of "járn" ("já" becomes "é"), but wasn't satisfied.  but than Finally I came across the construction "Ettinstuff", the name for titanium coined by the members of the "Anglish society", who are trying to create an English free of loan-words, the so-calle Anglish.  "Ettin" is an old word for "giant" in Old English and a cognate of the Icelandic "jötunn".  I decided to go for an i-shift of "jötunn": "ÉTNI". I find this the best option and stand by it.  "Étni" sounds like a name for element. It rhymes with "vetni" and sounds like "efni" (stuff, element). It also contains the consonants of "titan" and the characters of the international symbol "Ti".  Yes, this is the best choice for "titanium": "étni":  "gervilimur úr étni" (titanium prosthesis)

Gleypnismálmur (Tungsten)

Tungsten has the highest "tensile strength" of all metal, which is the maximum stress a material can withstand while being stretched or pulled before breaking. For that reason one could call the element after the almost unbreakable rope "Gleypnir", the binding that holds the mighty wolf Fenrir in Norse Mythology. "Gleypnir" is linked to the idea of "wolf", which is part of the name "Wolfram", referring to the fact that Scheelite (natural Calcium Wolframate) devoured (like a wolf) tin in the smelter.  

gimstjörnumálmur (Titanium)

Asterism is a phenomenon found in gem-stones, like the star-sapphire. It is generated by reflections of light from twin-lamellae or from extremely fine needle-shaped acicular inclusions within the stone's crystal structure. A common cause is oriented sub-microscopic crystals of rutile (TiO2) within the gem mineral.  So gimstjörnumálmur (gem-star-metal) is "titanium".

Eneumálmur (europium)

 Named after the second name of Europe in the Snorra Edda, Enea, derived from Aeneas, a Trojan hero and forefather of the founders of Rome:  Eneumálmur

Fjáraloft (Flúr)

The construction "fjáraloft" (demon-air) contains the four consonants in "flúr", while the word is formed after the name for fluorine used in Asian counrties and ex-soviet republics "phtor", derived from the Greek word for "destruction", because of the destructive nature of the gas. 

"Ásbrúarsvell" (iridium, Ir 77), "keisaramálmur" and "hrapvottssilfri"

 Iridium, the most corrosion-resistant metal known, the "noblest" of metals in chemical sense, the  "emperor-metal" (keisaramálmur), because it resist "kóngavatn" (king's water, aqua regia, the strongest acid so called because it disolves the "king of metals" gold), can be named after the many colours of its salts, which was the orgin of the international name. And it can be done with a "poetic kenning"! Iridium derives from "iris" (rainbow). Irdidescence can be expressed by the adjective "lithverfur" or "róf-", "rófrænn" (in "rófsjá" (spectroscope), but could be used as a prefix too, expressing "colour-variety". And last but certainly not least we have the old poetic kenning "ásbrú", the bridge of the Aesir, which was a rainbow.  For the second part of the name we can take an old poetic name for "silver": "svell" (gleaming ice-layer): "mundar svell" (mund (hand), "mundar-' (of the hand) + svell,  the "gleaming ice layer of the hands, silver) or "fetils svell" (the gleaming sword).  Iridium is a platinum-group metal and the name "platina" is a Spanish diminutive of "plata" (silver). Iridium is silvery-white so the use of "svell" in a kenning-name for the "keisaramálmur" is appropriate "ásbrúarsvell": So three words are possible for iridiu: keisaramálmur, ásbrúarsvell and hrapvottssilfri, because iridium is the "witness of the giant space rock that impacted on Earth thereby killing  the dinosaurs.  A small layer of iridium in a layer that was 66 million years old was found all around the planet, which can only be of meteoric origin. Iridium is the "impact-witness element".

Tímaguðsefni (titanium), léttjerni, forguðaglit or korneskaefni

 1) Tímaguðsefni

The name "titanium" was given by Martin Klaproth, in accordance with his views on chemical nomenclature in the counter-flow of the French chemical school, where they tried to name the element by its chemical properties. Since the German researcher himself noted the impossibility of determining the properties of a new element only by its oxide, he chose a name for it from mythology, by analogy with uranium that he had previously discovered.  

It is, therefore, reasonable to base the Icelandic on the international word.  Because there's no Icelandic word for this name of deities, and a translation of the German "Himmerstürmer" with addition of "-efni" would generate a word that is way to long.  An alternative way is naming the element after the leader of the Titans, Kronos, the god of time. This results into the word "Tímaguðsefni", of which the first two characters coincidentially are the same as the element's symbol.  

2) Léttjerni

Titanium is well known for its combination of lightness and strenght and is used iron-alloys.  It is a member of the so-called "iron-group of transition metals".  I propose the ending -jerni for these elements.  Some might say that "-jerni" sounds like a member of the "ferromagnetic triad" (iron, cobalt and nickel). But that depends which word you suffix.  The construction "léttjerni" suggest something that is lighter than iron, so this metal can't belong to the ferromagnetic triad.  Using "léttjerni" for iron consisting of the lightest stable isotop would be terminological illogical. Scandium is often excluded form the "iron-group of transition metals because it belongs to the "rare-earth elements". For that reason "léttjerni" could be used for titanium.

3) Forguðaglit

The Titans were the 12 Gods that preceded the 12 Olympians and have become a symbol for "the elder gods", the predecessing family of Gods: Fornguða- or Forguða- + glit (metallic lustre): Forguðaglit

4) Korneskaefni (Cornium)

Named after Cornwalls, because that's where titanium was discovered. Many elements are named after the countries or regions, where they were discovered, in this case "Cornwalls".

Hermóðsdögg or Hermóðardögg (kvikasilfur)

Mercury is the only metal for which the alchemical planetary name became the common name. The god Mercury was the quick messenger of the gods, hence the synonym "quicksilver". The Nordic equivalent is Hermóður, the messengergod nick-named "hinn hvati" (the speedy one).  Because mercury looks like dewdrops, I decided to call the element "Hermóðsdögg".

Ormsilfri (Platinum), Ormsilfringar (platinum-group elements)

Fáfnir was a dwarf in Old Norse mythology who was cursed by gold.  The construction "Ormsilfur" (the serpent's silver) doesn't make sense at first glance, but can be used for platinum, which has its name from it silvery appearance (Spanish: plata (silver) + "-ina" (dimninutive suffix) , platina, the little silver). In Icelandi "hvítagull" (white gold) has been used, because the element is situated next to gold and looks like silver, so "ormsilfur" works for "platinum"!

For the Platinum group of elements: Ru, Rh, Pd, Os, Ir, Pt the term Ormsilfringar can be used.

Elfarylfri (rhenium)

The construction "ylfri" for W (tungsten, wolfram) is a combination of "ylfi", a neuter noun derived from "úlfur" (a translation of the first part of "Wolfram") with addition of the first "r" in the second member "-ram", which makes the word sound like the dative of "silfur", silfri.  "Ylfi" on its own doesn't sound like the name of a metallic element. Addition of the "r" in "ram" does: ylfri

Rhenium was named after the river Rhine and is positioned right next to tungsten (wolfram): Elfar-ylfri, a funny rhyme word.  I like it.

So we have three words for rhenium

1) torsuðumálmur (highest boiling point)

2) elfarylfri (the "wolfram" (tungsten) named after a river (Rhine))

3) eðalþungsteinn (noble tungsten. Rhenium is a noble metal)

Fjandlyfti (Flúr)

 The most corrosive gaseous element is the halogen fluorine. Fjandlyfti

Germanium: saxefni, hálftin, ofurkísli and blendismelmingur

 Germanium:

So there are four possible names for germanium:

1) saxefni (the element was found in "Saxland" (Saxony) in Germany, so instead of naming it after the whole country, Germany , we can name it after the specific provinc, saxony: SAXONIUM (saxefni)

2) blendismelmingur: Germanium is commercially extracted from the zinc ore "sphalerite"  or "zinc blende"(ZnS). Just like the term "salt" originally designated only NaCl before it's meaning was broadened to designate "substances produced by the reaction of an acid with a base", "blendi" on itself was used for "Sphalerite". In Icelandic "sinkblendi" is used, but one can use "blendi" in Icelandic in the original narrower meaning. The fpur metallic elements, commercially extracted from sphalerite are: gallium (blendisál, closest to aluminium), cadmium (blendissilfur, closest to "silver"), indium (blendistin, closest to "tin") and germanium (blendismelmingur, the only "metalloid" (orðabanki: "málmbróðir", "málmungur", "mélmingur") extracted form "sphalerite"). So "blendismelminger" (I chose a compound with "melmingur" because of the vocal harmony) means "the metalloid in sphalerite".

ofurkísli (eka-silicon, the kind of terminology used by Medelejev before the element was discovered, the heavier brother of silicon)

hálftin (lying between silicon and tin, constructed after the word: hálfþrítugur, which doesn't mean 20 but 35)

Beryllium (esmi, from "Esmeralda" (smaragður))

Beryllium (esmi)

Beryllium is a exceedlingly diffeicult element to name in pure Icelandic. There's really only one word that is linked to the element and that's the loan-word "smaragður", "emerald", a greenish variety of beryl in which the element was discovered by Nichola-Louis Vauquelin in 1798. It exists in other languages as a feminine personal name: "Esmeralda" and the shorter form "Esme".  I have no idea how well-known this portuguese name is in Icelandic.  There is one person in Icelandic that has this name.  

I decided to borrow this name for Portuguese in a way that it sounds genuine Icelandic: the neuter noun "esmi", which I choose because of it's sounding similar to "efni" and the i-shifted names of elements like "vetni" ("hydrogen", from "vatn" (water), "ildi" ("oxygen", from "eldur" (fire)), "lyfti" ("nitrogen", from "loft" (air), and my own construction : "kelki" ("calcium", from "kalk" (lime)), "telki" (magnesium, from "talk" (talk)", "selti" (chlorine, from "salt"), blyfti (radon, a fusion of "blý" (lead) + "-lyfti" (loft), "blýþungt loft").

So "esmi" is in my opinion the best option.

þungsilfri (-s) (platinum)

 Apart from "gylfri" and "hvíyagull", there's another possibility for platinum: þungsilfri. It would be absurd to call the heavier chemical brother of silver, gold, "heavy silver", because in this case it would be inappropriate to call a yellow metal "a kind of silver". Add to this the fact that the Spanish called the element after "silver" (little silver, plata + -ina) and constructions like "þungsilfri" might be a good alternative for "hvítagull" (white gold).

Platinum and the platinum metals

"Hvítagull" for "platinum" is clumsy. In order to make names for the other platinum metals we need a shorter name.  Platína literally means "little silver" in Spanish.  The only word that can reflect the originally spanish etymology and the position of the element on the periodic system next to gold (expressed in hvítagull) is a fusion of the i-shifted forms of "gull" (gylli) and silfur (silfri): GYLFRI

Palladium was almost impossible to translate. meystirnisglit (the metallic lustre named after the asteroid that was in its turn named after the godess Pallas (meaning "virgin" (mey))
With "gylfri" as a flexible name for "platinum" we can easily form a name for platinum's little sister: GYLFRISSYSTIR, RÓFGYLFRI (róf- spectral, but can also refer to the many colours of its salts, for which the element was called after a rainbow (iris)), ÞEFGYLFRI (blágull, osmium),
Rhodium (brynsilfur or brynsilfri, ástblómsilfur),

Eyjasundefni (protactinium)

Protactinium has an unique position on the periodic system of respresenting a strait in the, in nuclear physics called "sea of instability" between two elements that have much more stable isotopes, the so-called primordial nuclides: Th-232 and U-235 and U-238.  The compound "eyjasund" (straight between two islands: ey (island, genitive plural eyja- (islands-) + sund occurs in the old icleandic liteature, nl, the Egilssaga and the Formannsögur. I first thought of the compound "eyjasundbly" (I'm using a stem-compound between "eyjasund" and "efni" instead of a "genitive compound" (eyjasundSblý), because "eyjasund" designates an inherent property of the element, instead of  a geographical location or a type-locality, like in mineralogy.
So the names for protactinium could be: Lísublý (Lizlead (named after Lise Meitner, who discovered the element) or "Eyjasundefni" (isle-strait-element) or "Eyjasundblý" (isle-strait lead)

Hydroxide

Two possible constructions for this term: Hældi or vetnildi

1) Hældi (Há (neuter noun, the name of the letter H, which is the symbol of Hydrogen + "ildi" (oxygen): Há + ildi = háildi or Hældi, as in the Old Norse toponym "Hæmur" (contraction of Há-heimur, in which the "á" was i-shifted, see Orðsifjabók)
2) Vetnildi (vetni + ildi)

Beryllium ragðamálmur

Instead of i-shifting the latter part of "smaragður" (-ragður, "regði"), a genitive plural compound with the latter part of the word is also a possibility: "ragðamálmur".

Lithium: lyndismálmur (mood-metal)

The best name for lithium is, in my opinion "laufsteinsmálmur", the "metal in a leafy stone", so-named because of the leafy flakes in the mineral in which it was originally found, nl. petallite (laufsteinn, laufspat). The metal was named after its MINERAL origin, because the only known alkali-metals known at the time of the discovery, were obtained from PLANT sources. The construction "Laufsteinsmálmur (leaf-stone-metal) is found upon the same idea as what the international name was found upon, its mineral, stony (Greek "lithos", stone), with this difference that the "leafy" nature of the stone must be specified, because "steinsmálmur" (metal form a stone), would make no sense.

Yet, there's another one, this time based on a unique property of the element: "lyndismálmur" ("lyndi" means "mental condition" and refers to lithium use, in the form of compounds, like lithium carbonate (kolsúr lyndismálmur, "carbacidic mood-metal" , for psychiatric conditions like bipolar disorder and schizophrenia.)

Plutonium and Nobelium

Plutonium is the homologue of Samarium in the lanthanide series, which was translated "samreskjumálmur" (samreskja is the Icelandic adaptation of Russian name "samarski", after other Old Icelandic adaptations of Russian toponyms: polotsk (Pallteskja) and Smolensk (Smáleskja).  The construction for plutonium becomes: samreskjublý (samarish lead).

Tungsten:
Another one for tungsten. The international name is "wolfram", named after the nickname  of the mineral scheelite "lupi spuma" (froth of the wolf), because it devoured tin in the smelter. It is, however not necessary make reference to a wolf: átfrauðmálmur (át- (eating away, corroding) + frauð (foam) + málmur (metal), or átfrauðglit, a construction in which "glit" stands for "metallic lustre".