Monday, February 11, 2013
lyftlingur (the baby-gas, hydrogen), hjályftlingur (helium)
An interesting avenue of thought is naming the first two elements, the lightest gases hydrogen and helium lyftlingar (gaskins), which is a diminutive of loft (air, gas) by adding the suffix -lingur. The singular form lyflingur could be synonymous to hydrogen and the compound hjályftlingur (hjá- additional + lyftlingur (baby-gas)) could be used of helium. I founded this idea upon melmlingur (diminutive of málmur, metal), which I used to designate the two lightest metals lithium (melmlingur) and berylium (þolmelmlingur). But there is a difference though: lithium and beryllium are dwarfs among the metallic elements not only with respect to density, atomic weight and radius, but also abundance, which is completely the other way round in the case of the two primordial gases. Still lyftlingur and hjályftlingur could be a valid designation for the two lightest gases in the universe.
Wednesday, January 16, 2013
Rare-earth elements (huliðsmálmar, duljörðungar, valefni) (updated)
In Norway, the former homeland of the first Icelanders, some of the oldest rocks on the planet are found. The mineralogical diversity of the Scandinavian mainland in general is mind-boggling, rivaling the Uralic region. Unfortunately, during the last few centuries, Norwegian mineralogists haven't been taking the trouble to coin native Norwegian names for these stones, names, that could easily be derived from the names of their type-locality, a term used by minearlogists to designate the place where a particular mineral was first found. No, as was the custom those days, names of minerals were founded upon Greek or Latin roots.
In the case of the rare-earth elements, most of these were isolated from minerals originating from the Scandinavian mainland, which means that if native names for the rare-earth elements would be possible, the only languages in which this could be accomplished would turn out to be the Scandinavian languages. And because almost all of the names of the type-localities of rare-earth minerals have Old Icelandic equivalents, Icelandic names for the rare-earth elements can be constructed.
List of possible Icelandic names of rare-earth minerals
Euxenite (Y): Jölmstarsteinn (The type-locality of Euxenite is the Norwegian place Jølster (see: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Euxenite (Read under occurence). The original and Icelandic form of the place-name is Jölmstur (Jölmstar- in compounds).
Ytterbite: Ytribæjargrýti (Ytterby means "outer village" and translates as "Ytribær" in Icelandic (ytribæjar- in compounds)
Kænosite (Y): Íglatjarnarsteinn, Ígultirni. Type locality is Igletjerne (Icel. Ígultjörn, Ígultjarnar-)(http://www.mindat.org/typelocs-3100.html
Polycrase: Rasvogsberg, rásvægi: Type locality: Rasvåg (Icelandic Rasvogur)
Aeschynite: Urðarstaðaberg, urðstæði; type-locality: Urstad ( = Urðarstaðir, see http://www.nb.no/utlevering/contentview.jsf;jsessionid=B6E3164699A9176F3926CB26FCB11882.sok2#&struct=DIVP163
Bastnesite: Bestnesgrýti
Cerite: Korndísarberg (The element cerium is named after the at the time newly discovered asteroid Ceres, which was named after the Godess of agriculture Ceres, whose name is the etymological root of "cereal". As for me, Korndís is an appropriate designation of the Godess and can be used uncompounded as a name for the asteroid as well. There's no need for a genitive compound with "-stirni".)
Monazite: stakhallur, eingrýti (The mineral was named from the Greek monazeis - "to be alone" in allusion to its isolated crystals and their rarity when first found. It is more convenient to translate the name of the mineral as stakhallur instead of the obvious einhallur because adoption of the latter can lead to connotations with the adjective einhallur, which means "monoclinic", also a mineralogical term. (Orðabanki íslenskrar málstöðvar). When prefering a compound with ein- it is better to use -grýti as the second element: eingrýti, which unfortunately produces three syllables where stakhallur becomes disyllabic in genitive compounds.)
An Icelandic version for the term "rare-earth element"
Despite their name, rare earth elements are relatively plentiful in the Earth's crust, with cerium being the 25th most abundant element at 68 parts per million (similar to copper). However, because of their geochemical properties, rare earth elements are typically dispersed and not often found in concentrated and economically exploitable forms. The few economically exploitable deposits are known as rare earth minerals. It was the very scarcity of these minerals (previously called "earths") that led to the term "rare earth".
The more appropriate term I have in mind is based upon the name of two of the rare-earth elements, namely lanthanum, which originates from the Greek λανθανω [lanthanō], "to lie hidden" and dysprosium, derived from the Greek dysprositos (δυσπρόσιτος), meaning "hard to get", another way to express the conceiled and unaccessible nature of the element.
Rather than founding a collective term for these elements upon the erroneous notion of their so-called rarity or "underabundance", it might be better to refer to their conceiledness and non-accessibility. This led to the following constructions:
Rare earth metals: huliðsmálmur (a pun on huliðshjálmr, a mythological helmet that made the one who bears it invisible), duljörðungar (dul- hidden + jörð (earth) + -ungar (suffix denoting the elements)), valefni, valmálmar (val- strange, foreign another way to express rarity (cfr. xenon, which is derived from Greek word for strange, because of its rarity. Strange things are rare, otherwise they weren't strange. The last element is -efni (substance))
Lanthanides: leyndarmálmar (the secret, concealed metals) or lotujarðmálmar (periodical earth-metals. Where other "earth metals" are not situated on a (horizontal) period), like the "earth alkaline metals, the elements of the aluminium group or the elements of group 3B (Scandium, Yttrium and Lanthanum), the lanthanides constitute a group of horizontally positioned elements.)
Rare earths are divided into two groups:
Yttrium-group: The elements associated with yttrium, which is named after the mineral Ytterbite, which is in its turn names after the village of Ytterby (Icel. Ytribær). But historically, the second type-location is Hitterø in Norway judging from this passage in the book "Discovery of the elements" by Elvira Weeks:
G.Flink stated that gadolinite (ytterbite) played a greater role in the history of inorganic chemistry than many other minerals and that it is mainly found only at two Scandinavian locations, manely Ytterby near Vaxholm (Sweden) and Hitterø near Flekkefjord in Norway. Other Scandinavian localities for it are of little importance and in other countries it is found only as a rarity (Weeks, Elvira, Discovery of the elements, p. 698).
The website mindat.org (Mineral and Locality Database) mentions for Hitterø as the type-locality for some other not unimportant Yttrium-minerals like Aeschynite (Y), Polycrase (Y) and Xenotime (Y) http://www.mindat.org/loc-3100.html as well as large crystals of Gadolinite (synonym of Ytterbite, see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gadolinite).
The Old Icelandic name for Hitterø is the singular feminine noun Hítra or the plural feminine Hítrar:
Hítr. kv., Hítrar kv.ft. fno. eyjar- og eyjanafn; sbr nno. Hidra, Hitra (Flekkefj., V.-Agðir; Nordfosen, S.-Þrændadal.). E.t.v. sk hít, af ie. *kei-d- 'skera, kljúfa' og merk. þá 'hin vogskorna eða þær fráskornu'. Vafasamt. (Íslensk Orðabók, Icelandic etymological dictionary)
The names Hítramálmur or the reduced form Hítri can easily serve for the element Yttrium and the derivation Hítrungar and the ending -hítri could be used in the terminological isolation of the so-called Yttroids, the heavier lanthanides that are associated with yttrium in nature (Gd, Tb, Dy, Ho, Er, Tm, Yb, Lu). The sound-similarity between Hítrar and Ytribæ is an additional bonus which almost seems too good to be true.
Cerium-group: Elements that are found in nature associated with Cerium are: Ce, Pr, Nd, Pm, Sm, Eu and Gd. Cerium was named after the at the time newly discovered asteroid Ceres, which was in its turn named after the Roman Godess of agriculture Ceres, whose name is also the etymological root of "cereal". As for me, Korndís is an appropriate designation of the Godess and can be used for the asteroid as well. There's no need to resort to a long genitive compound with "-stirni". Members of the cerium-group of rare-earths could be called Korndísungar, but for the element cerium itself, I use þórtin, because it is the chemical homologue of Thorium, which I called þórblý (þór- + blý (lead) Cerium and its heavier brother thorium (þórblý), possesses the IV+ oxidation state, and in that case both resemble elements of the Titanium group and to a somewhat lesser extent, tin and lead.
1) The yttrium group or yttroids
1) The West Scandinavian, Norwegian solution: Most of the heavier lanthanides associated with Yttrium were named after the mineral Ytterbite, which can be called after the second type-location of Hitterø, Norway (see above).
For that reason, Yttrium could be called Hítramálmur or hítri instead of the ytribæjarsilfur, ytri or svíamálmur (the Swedish metal), and the heavier lanthanides hítrungar (-hítringur or hítri as a suffix to denote the different yttroids) instead of ytribæingar or svíamálmar.
1) Terbium: hítrungatin (because it has a IV+ oxidation state like an element in the titanium and the tin group, which is a property also exhibited by the second lanthanide Cerium.)
2) Dysprosium: faturhuliðsmálmur (fatur = frustration + huliðsmálmur. the element's name dysprosium was derived from a Greek meaning "hard to get at", because it was difficult to isolate or torfenginmálmur)
3) Holmium: ?
3) Erbium: rósahítri (Erbium is the only rare-earth with a pink oxide),
4) Thulium: tílismálmur, tílskmálmur (from Tíli, Thule, mentioned in the Flateyjarbók), nyrstingamálmur (metal of the northernmost, which were according to the ancients, the Thulians)
5) Ytterbium: hítrakelki: calcium of the "hitterø-elements.
"The +2 oxidation state reacts in some ways similarly to the alkaline earth metal compounds; for example, Ytterbium(II) oxide (YbO) shows the same structure as calcium oxide (CaO)." (see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ytterbium )
In its calcium-like divalent behaviour, ytterbium has an affinity for the bones, just like any other osteophilic earth-alkaline element. About 25% of the absorbed ytterbium is deposited in the liver and 65% in the bones (see http://nautilus.fis.uc.pt/st2.5/scenes-e/elem/e07040.html )
6) Lutetium: þunghítrungur, lokahítri(ngur) (the heaviest of the Jølster-metals)
2) The East-Scandinavian solution:
terbium: ytribæjartin (ytritin), tribbi (yTRIBæjarefni, in the same way as terbium was coind: ytTERBy)
dysprosium: torfenginmálmur
holmium: hólmefni
erbium: rósaytribæingur (named after the typical pink oxide)
thullium: tílskmálmur (tílsk = thulian; this adjective compounded with málmur becomes monosyllabic, one syllable shorter than compounds with tílis-, like tílisefni)
ytterbium: tíliskelki (the calcium near thulium); ytribæjarmálmur
lutetium: þungytribæingur, lokaytribæingur
3) Other possibilities:
Dysprosium: dulhólmefni (because it was difficult to be seperated from holmium, with whom it is mostly closely associated in nature, hence the name dysposium (from the Greek word meaning "hard to get at")
Lutetium: lúteskmálmur, lúskmálmur (from lúteskur or lúskur, an adjective I derived from Lutetia), lokahuliðsmálmur, lokadulmálmur (final rare-earth), gallhuliðsmálmur, Valhuliðsmálmur (Gall- refers to Gaul, of which Lutetia was the capital), þunghuliðsmálmur (the heavy lanthanide))
2) The cerium group or ceroids (Korndísungar, léttleyndarmálmar)
1) Lanthanum:
1) leyndarmálmur (from the Greek "lanthanein", meaning to be hidden.)
2) eingrýtisál ("monazite's aluminium" (ál is used as a positioning marker for trivalent elements in group 3A and further down the road, even for elements in group 3B). In monazite (= lonestone, from Greek μοναζειν (to be solitary), in allusion to its isolated crystals, I called it eingrýti. Aluminium could serve as a role model for all trivalent elements of group 3a and 3b and lanthanum could be called "monazite's aluminium".
2) Cerium:
1) þórtin: The lighter homologue of thorium (þórblý). The term þórtin is an infrapolation of þorsblý.
2) korndísarmálmur, korndísartin: The element cerium is named after the at the time newly discovered asteroid Ceres, which was named after the Godess of agriculture Ceres, whose name is the etymological root of "cereal". As for me, Korndís is an appropriate designation of the Godess and can be used for the asteroid as well, without the need to resort to a genitive compound with "-stirni".
3) stakhallstin, eingrýtistin (The "tin" (tetravalent element) in monazite): The mineral was named from the Greek monazeis - "to be alone" in allusion to its isolated crystals and their rarity when first found. I translated the name as stakhallur or eingrýti instead of the obvious einhallur in order to avoid a connotation with the adjective einhallur, which means "monoclinic". (Orðabanki íslenskrar málstöðvar). The elements in monazite are predominantly Cerium, lanthanum, neodymium, thorium, phosphorus and oxygen. The only element that can be compared with "tin" or a 4A or 4B group element are cerium and thorium. Comparing an heavy element like thorium, situated 8 places above lead with "tin" is inappropriate, which leaves us with "tin". Cerium is "monazite's tin" (stakhallstin).
4) dulmelma (femininized form of dulmálmur, rare-earth): The only rare-earth element derived from a feminine name, Ceres, the name of an asteroid which was in its turn named after the godess of agriculture.)
5) aðaldulmálmur, dulmálmadrottning (the queen of the "concealed metals" (lanthanides), because Cerium comes from the name of the at the time newly discovered dwarf planet Ceres, which is a feminine name, no other rare earth element is called after a female being, directly or indirectly
3) praseodymium and neodymium: The name of the "earth" (mineral oxide) didymia was derived from Greek "didymos", which means "twin". The Icelandic version could be tvíjörð. From this earth, the oxides of both elements praseodymium and neodymium were isolated (praseodymia (græntvíjörð, grænjörð) and neodymia (nýtvíjörð, nýjörð). Normally the name for both elements should be græntvíjörðungur and nýtvíjörðungur respectively. But these are akward constructions and for that reason I made a terminological short-cut and called them grænjarðarmálmur and nýjarðarmálmur respectively. The reduced terms nýjörð can used for neodymia and grænjörð for praseodymia (instead of nýtvíjörð and grænutvíjörð).
An even shorter name than nýjarðarmálmur is nýdulmálmur (new "concealed-earth"). Neodymium is the only rare-earth with the neo- prefix, like neon (nýloft), so nýdulmálmur is transparent enough. The earth neodymia could be generated from nýdulmálmur: nýduljörð (new "concealed earth")
4) promethium:
1) eldþjófsefni, eldþýfi:
The ancients believed that the name Prometheus derived from the Greek pro (before) + manthano (learn) and the agent suffix -eus, thus meaning "Forethinker". Plato contrasts Prometheus with his dull-witted brother Epimetheus, "Afterthinker". Writing in late antiquity, the Latin commentator Servius explains that Prometheus was so named because he was a man of great foresight (vir prudentissimus), possessing the abstract quality of providentia, the Latin equivalent of Greek promētheia.
Modern scientific linguistics suggests that the name derived from the Proto-Indo-European root that also produces the Vedic pra math, "to steal," hence pramathyu-s, "thief", cognate with "Prometheus", the thief of fire. The Vedic myth of fire's theft by Mātariśvan is an analog to the Greek account. Pramantha was the tool used to create fire. (see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prometheus )
If you google "fire-thief" you will almost always end up with results where reference is made to the mythological fire-thief Prometheus. It is amazing, that when compounding two simple genuine Icelandic words the result exclusively designates something specific from another culture. Eldþjófur is a nice purely Icelandic alternative of the Greek Prometheus. Now, the interesting thing about this word is that it's actually constructed like a personal name: Eld- is a prefix found in Eldar, Eldborg, Eldey, Eldjárn and Eldór and -þjófur in Old Icelandic names like Friðþjófur, Geirþjófur, Húnþjófur and Valþjófur. True, the suffix has the original meaning of "servant" but the Íslensk Orðsifjabók mentions: Í einstaka tilvikum kann þjófur 'ránsmaður' að koma við sögu. The name indeed can mean "thief" as well as "servant", but that's even more convenient, because Prometheus was regarded as a "servant" by mankind because he gave them fire but as a thief through the eyes of the gods. So both meanings of þjófur apply to the character of Prometheus. In the international terminology the literal equivalent of eldþjófsefni would be pyrokleptium.
2) gervidulmálmur, gervihuliðsmálmur (gervi- (artificial) + dulmálmur, huliðsmálmur (rare-earth))
3) þeifsmálmur (Abbreviated form of prómeþeifsefni or prómeþeifsmálmur . If it is allowed to cut pieces from place-names like Ytterby and use the remains as building-blocks for names like terbium, yttrium and erbium, why would þeifsmálmur (þeifur sounds like Seifur and has the consonantal skeleton of þjófur) be so exaggerated?
4) þeifi (i-shifted last part of Prómeþeifur, a neuter noun). I know this is an extremely bold and eccentric reduction, but this word doesn't exist yet in Icelandic, so their are no connotations. Note that þeifi coincidentially has the same "consonantal lattice" as þjófur (thief, in Old Icelandic also servant).
samarium: samreskjumálmur, semri The root of the surname Samarski (meaning from the "city of Samara") is samar- to which the international elemental suffix -ium was added. For the Icelandic construction I decided to Icelandicize Samarski in the same way as names of Russian cities ending in -sk were once nordicized: Smolensk: smáleskja, Polotsk: pallteskja. On the analogy of these constructions, Samarski becomes Samreskju (Samar + -eskja: Samreskja). The name for the metal is Samreskjumálmur (Samarski-metal). An even shorter word would be an i-shift of the stem samar-: semri.
europium: samarkelki (closely associated with samrium in nature, from which it was separated: see the figure on: http://www.vanderkrogt.net/elements/rareearths.php
The root of the name Samarski is Samar (-ski is a slavix suffix meaning "pertaining to" and is equivalent to Icelandic -skur). In the international name the ending -ium was added to the root Samar-. Europium is strongly divalent, like calcium and true earth-alkaline elements in it chemical behaviour, which sets it apart from the other rare-earth elements. Hence the latter element -kelki (calcium, an i-shift from "kalk")
gadolinium:
1) finnmálmur: Gadolinium is the only element that can be linked up with Finland. And this through the person of the famous Finnish element hunter Johan Gadolin. The shortest construction is Finnmálmur.
Some might call it far-fetched. But if you know that:
- The French chemist Paul Emile Lecoq de Boisbaudran named gallium after Latin Gallia meaning Gaul, after his native land of France
- Winkler named his discovery germanium in honor of his homeland Germany
- Marie Curie named the first element she isolated, polonium after her homeland Poland
- Karl Klaus chose ruthenium in honor of his birthland Russia and the same goes for Francium
- Danium (old name for hafnium proposed by Niels bohr)
- and still other examples like Francium, Americium, Scandium, ect.
Would it be that far-fetched to call gadolinium, named after the only Finnish scientist in the history of the discovery of the elements, after his homecountry Finland? Only one single element on the periodic table can be linked up with Finland and that's gadolinium, through the person of Johan Gadolin, and therefore I called it Finnmálmur.
2) eingrýtisjárn (the iron in monazite (= solitary mineral, eingrýti, gadolinium is the only ferromagnetic element apart from iron, cobalt and nickel). Monazite is, along with bästnesite (bestnesgrýti) one of the main sources of gadolinium.). The latter element járn (iron) refers to the fact that apart from iron, cobalt and nickel, only gadolinium is ferromagnetic at normal temperatures (up to 16°C).
In the case of the rare-earth elements, most of these were isolated from minerals originating from the Scandinavian mainland, which means that if native names for the rare-earth elements would be possible, the only languages in which this could be accomplished would turn out to be the Scandinavian languages. And because almost all of the names of the type-localities of rare-earth minerals have Old Icelandic equivalents, Icelandic names for the rare-earth elements can be constructed.
List of possible Icelandic names of rare-earth minerals
Euxenite (Y): Jölmstarsteinn (The type-locality of Euxenite is the Norwegian place Jølster (see: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Euxenite (Read under occurence). The original and Icelandic form of the place-name is Jölmstur (Jölmstar- in compounds).
Ytterbite: Ytribæjargrýti (Ytterby means "outer village" and translates as "Ytribær" in Icelandic (ytribæjar- in compounds)
Kænosite (Y): Íglatjarnarsteinn, Ígultirni. Type locality is Igletjerne (Icel. Ígultjörn, Ígultjarnar-)(http://www.mindat.org/typelocs-3100.html
Polycrase: Rasvogsberg, rásvægi: Type locality: Rasvåg (Icelandic Rasvogur)
Aeschynite: Urðarstaðaberg, urðstæði; type-locality: Urstad ( = Urðarstaðir, see http://www.nb.no/utlevering/contentview.jsf;jsessionid=B6E3164699A9176F3926CB26FCB11882.sok2#&struct=DIVP163
Bastnesite: Bestnesgrýti
Cerite: Korndísarberg (The element cerium is named after the at the time newly discovered asteroid Ceres, which was named after the Godess of agriculture Ceres, whose name is the etymological root of "cereal". As for me, Korndís is an appropriate designation of the Godess and can be used uncompounded as a name for the asteroid as well. There's no need for a genitive compound with "-stirni".)
Monazite: stakhallur, eingrýti (The mineral was named from the Greek monazeis - "to be alone" in allusion to its isolated crystals and their rarity when first found. It is more convenient to translate the name of the mineral as stakhallur instead of the obvious einhallur because adoption of the latter can lead to connotations with the adjective einhallur, which means "monoclinic", also a mineralogical term. (Orðabanki íslenskrar málstöðvar). When prefering a compound with ein- it is better to use -grýti as the second element: eingrýti, which unfortunately produces three syllables where stakhallur becomes disyllabic in genitive compounds.)
An Icelandic version for the term "rare-earth element"
Despite their name, rare earth elements are relatively plentiful in the Earth's crust, with cerium being the 25th most abundant element at 68 parts per million (similar to copper). However, because of their geochemical properties, rare earth elements are typically dispersed and not often found in concentrated and economically exploitable forms. The few economically exploitable deposits are known as rare earth minerals. It was the very scarcity of these minerals (previously called "earths") that led to the term "rare earth".
The more appropriate term I have in mind is based upon the name of two of the rare-earth elements, namely lanthanum, which originates from the Greek λανθανω [lanthanō], "to lie hidden" and dysprosium, derived from the Greek dysprositos (δυσπρόσιτος), meaning "hard to get", another way to express the conceiled and unaccessible nature of the element.
Rather than founding a collective term for these elements upon the erroneous notion of their so-called rarity or "underabundance", it might be better to refer to their conceiledness and non-accessibility. This led to the following constructions:
Rare earth metals: huliðsmálmur (a pun on huliðshjálmr, a mythological helmet that made the one who bears it invisible), duljörðungar (dul- hidden + jörð (earth) + -ungar (suffix denoting the elements)), valefni, valmálmar (val- strange, foreign another way to express rarity (cfr. xenon, which is derived from Greek word for strange, because of its rarity. Strange things are rare, otherwise they weren't strange. The last element is -efni (substance))
Lanthanides: leyndarmálmar (the secret, concealed metals) or lotujarðmálmar (periodical earth-metals. Where other "earth metals" are not situated on a (horizontal) period), like the "earth alkaline metals, the elements of the aluminium group or the elements of group 3B (Scandium, Yttrium and Lanthanum), the lanthanides constitute a group of horizontally positioned elements.)
Rare earths are divided into two groups:
Yttrium-group: The elements associated with yttrium, which is named after the mineral Ytterbite, which is in its turn names after the village of Ytterby (Icel. Ytribær). But historically, the second type-location is Hitterø in Norway judging from this passage in the book "Discovery of the elements" by Elvira Weeks:
G.Flink stated that gadolinite (ytterbite) played a greater role in the history of inorganic chemistry than many other minerals and that it is mainly found only at two Scandinavian locations, manely Ytterby near Vaxholm (Sweden) and Hitterø near Flekkefjord in Norway. Other Scandinavian localities for it are of little importance and in other countries it is found only as a rarity (Weeks, Elvira, Discovery of the elements, p. 698).
The website mindat.org (Mineral and Locality Database) mentions for Hitterø as the type-locality for some other not unimportant Yttrium-minerals like Aeschynite (Y), Polycrase (Y) and Xenotime (Y) http://www.mindat.org/loc-3100.html as well as large crystals of Gadolinite (synonym of Ytterbite, see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gadolinite).
The Old Icelandic name for Hitterø is the singular feminine noun Hítra or the plural feminine Hítrar:
Hítr. kv., Hítrar kv.ft. fno. eyjar- og eyjanafn; sbr nno. Hidra, Hitra (Flekkefj., V.-Agðir; Nordfosen, S.-Þrændadal.). E.t.v. sk hít, af ie. *kei-d- 'skera, kljúfa' og merk. þá 'hin vogskorna eða þær fráskornu'. Vafasamt. (Íslensk Orðabók, Icelandic etymological dictionary)
The names Hítramálmur or the reduced form Hítri can easily serve for the element Yttrium and the derivation Hítrungar and the ending -hítri could be used in the terminological isolation of the so-called Yttroids, the heavier lanthanides that are associated with yttrium in nature (Gd, Tb, Dy, Ho, Er, Tm, Yb, Lu). The sound-similarity between Hítrar and Ytribæ is an additional bonus which almost seems too good to be true.
Cerium-group: Elements that are found in nature associated with Cerium are: Ce, Pr, Nd, Pm, Sm, Eu and Gd. Cerium was named after the at the time newly discovered asteroid Ceres, which was in its turn named after the Roman Godess of agriculture Ceres, whose name is also the etymological root of "cereal". As for me, Korndís is an appropriate designation of the Godess and can be used for the asteroid as well. There's no need to resort to a long genitive compound with "-stirni". Members of the cerium-group of rare-earths could be called Korndísungar, but for the element cerium itself, I use þórtin, because it is the chemical homologue of Thorium, which I called þórblý (þór- + blý (lead) Cerium and its heavier brother thorium (þórblý), possesses the IV+ oxidation state, and in that case both resemble elements of the Titanium group and to a somewhat lesser extent, tin and lead.
1) The yttrium group or yttroids
1) The West Scandinavian, Norwegian solution: Most of the heavier lanthanides associated with Yttrium were named after the mineral Ytterbite, which can be called after the second type-location of Hitterø, Norway (see above).
For that reason, Yttrium could be called Hítramálmur or hítri instead of the ytribæjarsilfur, ytri or svíamálmur (the Swedish metal), and the heavier lanthanides hítrungar (-hítringur or hítri as a suffix to denote the different yttroids) instead of ytribæingar or svíamálmar.
1) Terbium: hítrungatin (because it has a IV+ oxidation state like an element in the titanium and the tin group, which is a property also exhibited by the second lanthanide Cerium.)
2) Dysprosium: faturhuliðsmálmur (fatur = frustration + huliðsmálmur. the element's name dysprosium was derived from a Greek meaning "hard to get at", because it was difficult to isolate or torfenginmálmur)
3) Holmium: ?
3) Erbium: rósahítri (Erbium is the only rare-earth with a pink oxide),
4) Thulium: tílismálmur, tílskmálmur (from Tíli, Thule, mentioned in the Flateyjarbók), nyrstingamálmur (metal of the northernmost, which were according to the ancients, the Thulians)
5) Ytterbium: hítrakelki: calcium of the "hitterø-elements.
"The +2 oxidation state reacts in some ways similarly to the alkaline earth metal compounds; for example, Ytterbium(II) oxide (YbO) shows the same structure as calcium oxide (CaO)." (see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ytterbium )
In its calcium-like divalent behaviour, ytterbium has an affinity for the bones, just like any other osteophilic earth-alkaline element. About 25% of the absorbed ytterbium is deposited in the liver and 65% in the bones (see http://nautilus.fis.uc.pt/st2.5/scenes-e/elem/e07040.html )
6) Lutetium: þunghítrungur, lokahítri(ngur) (the heaviest of the Jølster-metals)
2) The East-Scandinavian solution:
terbium: ytribæjartin (ytritin), tribbi (yTRIBæjarefni, in the same way as terbium was coind: ytTERBy)
dysprosium: torfenginmálmur
holmium: hólmefni
erbium: rósaytribæingur (named after the typical pink oxide)
thullium: tílskmálmur (tílsk = thulian; this adjective compounded with málmur becomes monosyllabic, one syllable shorter than compounds with tílis-, like tílisefni)
ytterbium: tíliskelki (the calcium near thulium); ytribæjarmálmur
lutetium: þungytribæingur, lokaytribæingur
3) Other possibilities:
Dysprosium: dulhólmefni (because it was difficult to be seperated from holmium, with whom it is mostly closely associated in nature, hence the name dysposium (from the Greek word meaning "hard to get at")
Lutetium: lúteskmálmur, lúskmálmur (from lúteskur or lúskur, an adjective I derived from Lutetia), lokahuliðsmálmur, lokadulmálmur (final rare-earth), gallhuliðsmálmur, Valhuliðsmálmur (Gall- refers to Gaul, of which Lutetia was the capital), þunghuliðsmálmur (the heavy lanthanide))
2) The cerium group or ceroids (Korndísungar, léttleyndarmálmar)
1) Lanthanum:
1) leyndarmálmur (from the Greek "lanthanein", meaning to be hidden.)
2) eingrýtisál ("monazite's aluminium" (ál is used as a positioning marker for trivalent elements in group 3A and further down the road, even for elements in group 3B). In monazite (= lonestone, from Greek μοναζειν (to be solitary), in allusion to its isolated crystals, I called it eingrýti. Aluminium could serve as a role model for all trivalent elements of group 3a and 3b and lanthanum could be called "monazite's aluminium".
2) Cerium:
1) þórtin: The lighter homologue of thorium (þórblý). The term þórtin is an infrapolation of þorsblý.
2) korndísarmálmur, korndísartin: The element cerium is named after the at the time newly discovered asteroid Ceres, which was named after the Godess of agriculture Ceres, whose name is the etymological root of "cereal". As for me, Korndís is an appropriate designation of the Godess and can be used for the asteroid as well, without the need to resort to a genitive compound with "-stirni".
3) stakhallstin, eingrýtistin (The "tin" (tetravalent element) in monazite): The mineral was named from the Greek monazeis - "to be alone" in allusion to its isolated crystals and their rarity when first found. I translated the name as stakhallur or eingrýti instead of the obvious einhallur in order to avoid a connotation with the adjective einhallur, which means "monoclinic". (Orðabanki íslenskrar málstöðvar). The elements in monazite are predominantly Cerium, lanthanum, neodymium, thorium, phosphorus and oxygen. The only element that can be compared with "tin" or a 4A or 4B group element are cerium and thorium. Comparing an heavy element like thorium, situated 8 places above lead with "tin" is inappropriate, which leaves us with "tin". Cerium is "monazite's tin" (stakhallstin).
4) dulmelma (femininized form of dulmálmur, rare-earth): The only rare-earth element derived from a feminine name, Ceres, the name of an asteroid which was in its turn named after the godess of agriculture.)
5) aðaldulmálmur, dulmálmadrottning (the queen of the "concealed metals" (lanthanides), because Cerium comes from the name of the at the time newly discovered dwarf planet Ceres, which is a feminine name, no other rare earth element is called after a female being, directly or indirectly
3) praseodymium and neodymium: The name of the "earth" (mineral oxide) didymia was derived from Greek "didymos", which means "twin". The Icelandic version could be tvíjörð. From this earth, the oxides of both elements praseodymium and neodymium were isolated (praseodymia (græntvíjörð, grænjörð) and neodymia (nýtvíjörð, nýjörð). Normally the name for both elements should be græntvíjörðungur and nýtvíjörðungur respectively. But these are akward constructions and for that reason I made a terminological short-cut and called them grænjarðarmálmur and nýjarðarmálmur respectively. The reduced terms nýjörð can used for neodymia and grænjörð for praseodymia (instead of nýtvíjörð and grænutvíjörð).
An even shorter name than nýjarðarmálmur is nýdulmálmur (new "concealed-earth"). Neodymium is the only rare-earth with the neo- prefix, like neon (nýloft), so nýdulmálmur is transparent enough. The earth neodymia could be generated from nýdulmálmur: nýduljörð (new "concealed earth")
4) promethium:
1) eldþjófsefni, eldþýfi:
The ancients believed that the name Prometheus derived from the Greek pro (before) + manthano (learn) and the agent suffix -eus, thus meaning "Forethinker". Plato contrasts Prometheus with his dull-witted brother Epimetheus, "Afterthinker". Writing in late antiquity, the Latin commentator Servius explains that Prometheus was so named because he was a man of great foresight (vir prudentissimus), possessing the abstract quality of providentia, the Latin equivalent of Greek promētheia.
Modern scientific linguistics suggests that the name derived from the Proto-Indo-European root that also produces the Vedic pra math, "to steal," hence pramathyu-s, "thief", cognate with "Prometheus", the thief of fire. The Vedic myth of fire's theft by Mātariśvan is an analog to the Greek account. Pramantha was the tool used to create fire. (see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prometheus )
If you google "fire-thief" you will almost always end up with results where reference is made to the mythological fire-thief Prometheus. It is amazing, that when compounding two simple genuine Icelandic words the result exclusively designates something specific from another culture. Eldþjófur is a nice purely Icelandic alternative of the Greek Prometheus. Now, the interesting thing about this word is that it's actually constructed like a personal name: Eld- is a prefix found in Eldar, Eldborg, Eldey, Eldjárn and Eldór and -þjófur in Old Icelandic names like Friðþjófur, Geirþjófur, Húnþjófur and Valþjófur. True, the suffix has the original meaning of "servant" but the Íslensk Orðsifjabók mentions: Í einstaka tilvikum kann þjófur 'ránsmaður' að koma við sögu. The name indeed can mean "thief" as well as "servant", but that's even more convenient, because Prometheus was regarded as a "servant" by mankind because he gave them fire but as a thief through the eyes of the gods. So both meanings of þjófur apply to the character of Prometheus. In the international terminology the literal equivalent of eldþjófsefni would be pyrokleptium.
2) gervidulmálmur, gervihuliðsmálmur (gervi- (artificial) + dulmálmur, huliðsmálmur (rare-earth))
3) þeifsmálmur (Abbreviated form of prómeþeifsefni or prómeþeifsmálmur . If it is allowed to cut pieces from place-names like Ytterby and use the remains as building-blocks for names like terbium, yttrium and erbium, why would þeifsmálmur (þeifur sounds like Seifur and has the consonantal skeleton of þjófur) be so exaggerated?
4) þeifi (i-shifted last part of Prómeþeifur, a neuter noun). I know this is an extremely bold and eccentric reduction, but this word doesn't exist yet in Icelandic, so their are no connotations. Note that þeifi coincidentially has the same "consonantal lattice" as þjófur (thief, in Old Icelandic also servant).
samarium: samreskjumálmur, semri The root of the surname Samarski (meaning from the "city of Samara") is samar- to which the international elemental suffix -ium was added. For the Icelandic construction I decided to Icelandicize Samarski in the same way as names of Russian cities ending in -sk were once nordicized: Smolensk: smáleskja, Polotsk: pallteskja. On the analogy of these constructions, Samarski becomes Samreskju (Samar + -eskja: Samreskja). The name for the metal is Samreskjumálmur (Samarski-metal). An even shorter word would be an i-shift of the stem samar-: semri.
europium: samarkelki (closely associated with samrium in nature, from which it was separated: see the figure on: http://www.vanderkrogt.net/elements/rareearths.php
The root of the name Samarski is Samar (-ski is a slavix suffix meaning "pertaining to" and is equivalent to Icelandic -skur). In the international name the ending -ium was added to the root Samar-. Europium is strongly divalent, like calcium and true earth-alkaline elements in it chemical behaviour, which sets it apart from the other rare-earth elements. Hence the latter element -kelki (calcium, an i-shift from "kalk")
gadolinium:
1) finnmálmur: Gadolinium is the only element that can be linked up with Finland. And this through the person of the famous Finnish element hunter Johan Gadolin. The shortest construction is Finnmálmur.
Some might call it far-fetched. But if you know that:
- The French chemist Paul Emile Lecoq de Boisbaudran named gallium after Latin Gallia meaning Gaul, after his native land of France
- Winkler named his discovery germanium in honor of his homeland Germany
- Marie Curie named the first element she isolated, polonium after her homeland Poland
- Karl Klaus chose ruthenium in honor of his birthland Russia and the same goes for Francium
- Danium (old name for hafnium proposed by Niels bohr)
- and still other examples like Francium, Americium, Scandium, ect.
Would it be that far-fetched to call gadolinium, named after the only Finnish scientist in the history of the discovery of the elements, after his homecountry Finland? Only one single element on the periodic table can be linked up with Finland and that's gadolinium, through the person of Johan Gadolin, and therefore I called it Finnmálmur.
2) eingrýtisjárn (the iron in monazite (= solitary mineral, eingrýti, gadolinium is the only ferromagnetic element apart from iron, cobalt and nickel). Monazite is, along with bästnesite (bestnesgrýti) one of the main sources of gadolinium.). The latter element járn (iron) refers to the fact that apart from iron, cobalt and nickel, only gadolinium is ferromagnetic at normal temperatures (up to 16°C).
Sunday, January 6, 2013
Evidence for the validity of the use of -blý (lead) as the final part in Icelandic native names of transplumbic elements
The only way to produce native names for transplumbic elements is the use of blý (lead), the heaviest element for which an uncompounded word existed in the Old Icelandic: maríublý (MARILEAD (compare "marigold", polonium), blyfti (blý + loft -lyfti), þórblý (thorium), úteyjablý (uranium) heljarblý (plutonium), nýheimsblý (americium), lafransblý (lawrencium).The following examples show the validity of this approach:
1) The last colour situated near the lower end of the visible spectrum that has an uncompounded name belonging to Icelandic core-vocabulary is blár (blue). The names of the colours or radiation beyond blue were designated by compounds with "blár": dimmfjólublár (indígó) - fjólublár (violet) - útfjólublár or útblár (ultraviolet).
2) Another example of this terminological extrapolation can be found in the formation of modern names of large numerals. The largest numbers in antiquity, designated by uncompounded names were mille (thousand) in Latin and myriados (ten thousand) in Greek. Terms for larger numbers, magnitudes of thousand were construted from the word "mille": million - bILLion, trILLion, QuadILLion Analoguous to these examples, native Icelandic names of transplumbic elements could be coined by using "blý" (lead) as the final element: maríublý (MARILEAD (like marigold), polonium), þórblý (thorium), heljarblý (hell-lead, plutonium), nýheimsblý (new-world's lead, americium), lafransblý (lawrence's lead, lawrencium)
3) Even in geographical names there's an example to be found: e.g. the name "the Indies" were derived from the Indus River and were applied by the ancient Greeks to most of the regions of Asia that lay further to the east than Persia. The term "Indies" was first used by European geographers to identify geographic regions not only the Indian Subcontinent, but also the islands beyond, although geopgraphically Indonesia has little to with the Indian subcontinent. This is again an example of using the historical name of an outermost region on the map in order to designate later discovered regions even further away. Indland (India) - Indókína (Indochine) - Indonesia (Indónesía, Indeyjar)
1) The last colour situated near the lower end of the visible spectrum that has an uncompounded name belonging to Icelandic core-vocabulary is blár (blue). The names of the colours or radiation beyond blue were designated by compounds with "blár": dimmfjólublár (indígó) - fjólublár (violet) - útfjólublár or útblár (ultraviolet).
2) Another example of this terminological extrapolation can be found in the formation of modern names of large numerals. The largest numbers in antiquity, designated by uncompounded names were mille (thousand) in Latin and myriados (ten thousand) in Greek. Terms for larger numbers, magnitudes of thousand were construted from the word "mille": million - bILLion, trILLion, QuadILLion Analoguous to these examples, native Icelandic names of transplumbic elements could be coined by using "blý" (lead) as the final element: maríublý (MARILEAD (like marigold), polonium), þórblý (thorium), heljarblý (hell-lead, plutonium), nýheimsblý (new-world's lead, americium), lafransblý (lawrence's lead, lawrencium)
3) Even in geographical names there's an example to be found: e.g. the name "the Indies" were derived from the Indus River and were applied by the ancient Greeks to most of the regions of Asia that lay further to the east than Persia. The term "Indies" was first used by European geographers to identify geographic regions not only the Indian Subcontinent, but also the islands beyond, although geopgraphically Indonesia has little to with the Indian subcontinent. This is again an example of using the historical name of an outermost region on the map in order to designate later discovered regions even further away. Indland (India) - Indókína (Indochine) - Indonesia (Indónesía, Indeyjar)
Thursday, November 29, 2012
Topographical representation of the periodic system with regard to nuclear stability with "real-world" examples
In a topographical representation of the periodic table with respect to nuclear stability (continent - sea - islands) and, as a consequence of this, to abundance (deserts -oases), the closest you can get with a real-world example is the following one:
Hydrogen would be situated at the far east of the Eurasian continent. From there, a line is drawn all the way towards Cap Griz Nez, at the strait of Dover in France. Relatively large watermasses in the middle of the Eurasian continent like Lake Baikal and the Caspian Sea could be seen as representing the two gaps technetium and promethium. Cape Griz Nez at the strait of Dover in France would be the equivalent of bismuth on the periodic table, at the shore of the "sea of instability". But the latter is now known to be unstable. Bismuth's most abundant isotope Bi-209 has a half-life in excess of a billion times the age of the universe. So if you would actually put that into perspective topographically, bismuth would be situated between the ebb and floodline of a protruding flat beach where the water at high tide doesn't rise above a picometre, which is much smaller than the size of a water-molecule. At first sight, it might look as if the strait of Dover should have been far more broad than it is to fit this comparison, but if one enters the abundance of the elements between bismuth and thorium into the equation, the comparison might stand or would even be grotesquely underestimated. The landmasses of the British Isles, Great Britain, the isle of Man and Ireland could be regarded as representing the only three significant "islands of stability": Th-232, U-235 and U-238. Great Britain represent thorium (proportionately, the island should be three times the size of Ireland in order to match the comparison), the Isle of Man represents U-235, much less abundant than the other two because of its much shorter half-life and the smaller Ireland compares to the more unstable and less abundant uranium. And ultimately, we end up with the last traces of primordial Pu-244, which due to its 80-million-year half-life just managed to survive the five gigayears of geological time only to narrowly fail to defy detection. Plutonium's situation on the periodic table is comparable to that of Rockall, a small, uninhabited, remote rocky islet in the North Atlantic Ocean, which has become the geographical epiteth of "remoteness" and "isolation". See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rockall
The main periodic table ends at bismuth, by geographical analogy, at the shore edge of a continent; a continental shelf continues however, with shallows beginning at radium that rapidly drop off again after californium, with significant islands at thorium and uranium, as well as minor ones at e.g. plutonium, all of which is surrounded by a "sea of instability", which renders such elements as astatine, radon, and francium extremely short-lived relative to all but the heaviest elements found so far. (See: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Island_of_stability )
As for terminology, some interesting Icelandic names for these outlying elements can be derived from this topographical comparison:
Thorium: eyblý (island-lead). This reason I used "ey-" or "eyju-" as the the first part of a compound name for thorium is twofold: firstly, it is founded upon the fact that the element was discovered in a sample, originating from the Norwegian island Løvøy (Icel. Laufey, "leaves' island"), see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/L%C3%B8v%C3%B8ya,_Telemark and secondly and maybe more importantly, the fact of thorium being the most stable and consequently most abundant element of the two only islands of nuclear stability beyond lead and bismuth: thorium = eyblý (island lead) and uranium, úteyjublý ("outer-island lead", úteyja (outer island) + blý (lead)).
uranium: úteyjablý (The first part úteyja means " of the outer islands (of stability)" (U-235 and U-238). The second part -blý incdicates its position after lead and also the fact that after a long time the element will finally turn to "lead".
The first part in "úteyja-", út (outer, outlying), refers to the fact that the predominant uranium isotopes U-235 and U-238, represent the last significant "isotopal islands" of stability.
Plutonium: útskersblý (útsker ("outer rock in the sea", like Rockall or Kolbeinsey respectively off the Irish and Icelandic coast) + blý ("lead", situates the element after lead and points to its ultimate destiny). Plutonium constitutes the last outpost of the naturally occuring elements due to the relatively long half-life (80 million years) of its most stable isotope Pu-244, which ultimately ends up as the lead isotope Pb-207.
Hydrogen would be situated at the far east of the Eurasian continent. From there, a line is drawn all the way towards Cap Griz Nez, at the strait of Dover in France. Relatively large watermasses in the middle of the Eurasian continent like Lake Baikal and the Caspian Sea could be seen as representing the two gaps technetium and promethium. Cape Griz Nez at the strait of Dover in France would be the equivalent of bismuth on the periodic table, at the shore of the "sea of instability". But the latter is now known to be unstable. Bismuth's most abundant isotope Bi-209 has a half-life in excess of a billion times the age of the universe. So if you would actually put that into perspective topographically, bismuth would be situated between the ebb and floodline of a protruding flat beach where the water at high tide doesn't rise above a picometre, which is much smaller than the size of a water-molecule. At first sight, it might look as if the strait of Dover should have been far more broad than it is to fit this comparison, but if one enters the abundance of the elements between bismuth and thorium into the equation, the comparison might stand or would even be grotesquely underestimated. The landmasses of the British Isles, Great Britain, the isle of Man and Ireland could be regarded as representing the only three significant "islands of stability": Th-232, U-235 and U-238. Great Britain represent thorium (proportionately, the island should be three times the size of Ireland in order to match the comparison), the Isle of Man represents U-235, much less abundant than the other two because of its much shorter half-life and the smaller Ireland compares to the more unstable and less abundant uranium. And ultimately, we end up with the last traces of primordial Pu-244, which due to its 80-million-year half-life just managed to survive the five gigayears of geological time only to narrowly fail to defy detection. Plutonium's situation on the periodic table is comparable to that of Rockall, a small, uninhabited, remote rocky islet in the North Atlantic Ocean, which has become the geographical epiteth of "remoteness" and "isolation". See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rockall
The main periodic table ends at bismuth, by geographical analogy, at the shore edge of a continent; a continental shelf continues however, with shallows beginning at radium that rapidly drop off again after californium, with significant islands at thorium and uranium, as well as minor ones at e.g. plutonium, all of which is surrounded by a "sea of instability", which renders such elements as astatine, radon, and francium extremely short-lived relative to all but the heaviest elements found so far. (See: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Island_of_stability )
As for terminology, some interesting Icelandic names for these outlying elements can be derived from this topographical comparison:
Thorium: eyblý (island-lead). This reason I used "ey-" or "eyju-" as the the first part of a compound name for thorium is twofold: firstly, it is founded upon the fact that the element was discovered in a sample, originating from the Norwegian island Løvøy (Icel. Laufey, "leaves' island"), see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/L%C3%B8v%C3%B8ya,_Telemark and secondly and maybe more importantly, the fact of thorium being the most stable and consequently most abundant element of the two only islands of nuclear stability beyond lead and bismuth: thorium = eyblý (island lead) and uranium, úteyjublý ("outer-island lead", úteyja (outer island) + blý (lead)).
uranium: úteyjablý (The first part úteyja means " of the outer islands (of stability)" (U-235 and U-238). The second part -blý incdicates its position after lead and also the fact that after a long time the element will finally turn to "lead".
The first part in "úteyja-", út (outer, outlying), refers to the fact that the predominant uranium isotopes U-235 and U-238, represent the last significant "isotopal islands" of stability.
Plutonium: útskersblý (útsker ("outer rock in the sea", like Rockall or Kolbeinsey respectively off the Irish and Icelandic coast) + blý ("lead", situates the element after lead and points to its ultimate destiny). Plutonium constitutes the last outpost of the naturally occuring elements due to the relatively long half-life (80 million years) of its most stable isotope Pu-244, which ultimately ends up as the lead isotope Pb-207.
Wednesday, November 14, 2012
Actinides (þórbirklingar - thorberkelians)
The first element in þórbirklingar (lit. thorberkelians), þór- refers to Thorium, the most abundant of the actinides, being three times more abundant than uranium.
"Þór-" as a first element in a collective name for the actinides refers to the first naturally occuring actinides. The transuranium actinides, from Neptunium to lawrencium were all discovered in the Berkeley labs. It was to be discovered later that the primordial plutonium-isotope Pu-244 existed in nature but only to be found in amounts that barely defy detection. The long-lived isotopes of the lightest transplutonium elements didn't manage to survive the onslaught of 5 gigayears of geological time and were all synthesized at Berkeley. The college was named in honor of the Anglo-Irish philosopher George Berkeley (Icel. Gyrgir Birkiló), who's surname is derived from a place-name meaning "birch-clearing". This toponym can easily be translated into Icelandic: Birkiló (-ló as in Osló), from which birkil- can be used in constructions like birkilefni.
(compare Berkeley / berkel-ium) or nýbirkilefni, nýbirkli (neoberkelium, californium), maríubirkli ("Mary's berkelium", curium). See the article on the radioactive elements under Berkelium: http://lotukerfi.blogspot.be/2012/08/polonium-mariubly-pulinamalmur-ok-that.html
From Birkil- the collective noun birklingar can be derived, representing the transplutonium elements. The prefix þór- as a first element followed by -birklingar symbolizes the combination of the natural and synthesized elements that make up the actinide series: þórbirklingar, which would sound like "Thorberkelians" in English). The name looks like a typically Old Icelandic collective family name, as if it is derived from "Bjarki Þór".
It is important to note is that even if the existing names of the two key-elements were used: þórín instead of my þórblý and berkelín instead of my birkilefni, birkli, the construction þórbirklingar (thorberkelians) would still be valid: There's no reason why þór- as a derivation of þórín would be unacceptable as a positioning marker for elements near thorium, while berkel- in berkelín undergoes an i-shift and becomes birklingar when the collective surname ending -ingar is added.
Note also the position of Thorium (dark red) as the second element of the first 7 actinides (rosy-red), while berkelium (dark green), the element that was explicitely named after the place where the heavier actinides (pale green) were synthesized, is the second element of the second half of the group, right after the central actinide, curium. Both thorium and berkelium have, because of this position, tetravalent oxidation states.
It's a nice feeling to find out that this particular group of elements, the most members of which were discovered only as late as the so-called "nuclear era", can actually be designated by a purely Icelandic name constructed similarily to an Old Norse collective family name (e.g. Þorbirningar (descendants of Þorbjörn)). In Icelandic, nothing is untranslatable!
"Þór-" as a first element in a collective name for the actinides refers to the first naturally occuring actinides. The transuranium actinides, from Neptunium to lawrencium were all discovered in the Berkeley labs. It was to be discovered later that the primordial plutonium-isotope Pu-244 existed in nature but only to be found in amounts that barely defy detection. The long-lived isotopes of the lightest transplutonium elements didn't manage to survive the onslaught of 5 gigayears of geological time and were all synthesized at Berkeley. The college was named in honor of the Anglo-Irish philosopher George Berkeley (Icel. Gyrgir Birkiló), who's surname is derived from a place-name meaning "birch-clearing". This toponym can easily be translated into Icelandic: Birkiló (-ló as in Osló), from which birkil- can be used in constructions like birkilefni.
(compare Berkeley / berkel-ium) or nýbirkilefni, nýbirkli (neoberkelium, californium), maríubirkli ("Mary's berkelium", curium). See the article on the radioactive elements under Berkelium: http://lotukerfi.blogspot.be/2012/08/polonium-mariubly-pulinamalmur-ok-that.html
From Birkil- the collective noun birklingar can be derived, representing the transplutonium elements. The prefix þór- as a first element followed by -birklingar symbolizes the combination of the natural and synthesized elements that make up the actinide series: þórbirklingar, which would sound like "Thorberkelians" in English). The name looks like a typically Old Icelandic collective family name, as if it is derived from "Bjarki Þór".
It is important to note is that even if the existing names of the two key-elements were used: þórín instead of my þórblý and berkelín instead of my birkilefni, birkli, the construction þórbirklingar (thorberkelians) would still be valid: There's no reason why þór- as a derivation of þórín would be unacceptable as a positioning marker for elements near thorium, while berkel- in berkelín undergoes an i-shift and becomes birklingar when the collective surname ending -ingar is added.
Note also the position of Thorium (dark red) as the second element of the first 7 actinides (rosy-red), while berkelium (dark green), the element that was explicitely named after the place where the heavier actinides (pale green) were synthesized, is the second element of the second half of the group, right after the central actinide, curium. Both thorium and berkelium have, because of this position, tetravalent oxidation states.
It's a nice feeling to find out that this particular group of elements, the most members of which were discovered only as late as the so-called "nuclear era", can actually be designated by a purely Icelandic name constructed similarily to an Old Norse collective family name (e.g. Þorbirningar (descendants of Þorbjörn)). In Icelandic, nothing is untranslatable!
The term "transactinide" translates as handan þórbirklinganna (beyond the thorberkelians) or handan lafransblýs (lit. "beyond lawrence-lead", translawrencium).
Þórbirklingar eru þyngri bræður eða systur leyndarmálma eða lotujarðmálma:
þórál eða hnossarblý (Ac), þórefni eða norðblý (Th) og bikþórefni, or biknorðblý (Th-230, Ionium), freyjublý (Pa), úteyjablý, fenrisblý, þórþungsteinn eða bikmálmur (U), eldþjófsblý, þeifsblý eða ægisefni (Np), heljarblý, kjarnagull, útskersblý, flokinmálmur eða sjögervismálmur (Pu), nýheimsblý (Am), maríubirkli, miðbirkli (Cm), birkli eða birkilefni (Bk), nýbirkli, nýbirkilefni eða hraðalsgull (Cf), eyjarbirkilefni eða styttri eybirkli, albirti eða hólmblý (Es), birklund, einreksblý (Fm), tílisblý (Md), nýbýlisblý birklingakelki eða elfráðsbirkli (No) og loksins lafransblý, lúskabirkli (lutetian berkelium) eða lokaþórbirklingur.
(1) For fundur in the meaning of "fifteen men" see: http://www.heimskringla.no/wiki/Sk%C3%A1ldskaparm%C3%A1l ( under 82. hópaheiti)
Thursday, November 1, 2012
tvöfrafernd (double magic foursome, alpha particle)
A name for the alpha particle could be fjóreind, fereind or even simply fernd in the same fashion as tvennd was mentioned in the additional meaning of "deuteron" (heavy-water hydrogen nucleus) (Arngrímur Sigurðsson, Íslensk orðabók til að hafa við höndina).
But there's a better one: tvöfrafernd, consisting of tvöfra- (double magic, a contraction of tvö- and töfra- (magic) and fernd (foursome). http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Magic_number_(physics)
The term tvöfrungur (double magic one, a magic nucleus) can be used to designate "alpha-radiation" since the other magic nuclei oxygen-16 (16O), calcium-40 (40Ca), calcium-48 (48Ca), nickel-48 (48Ni) and lead-208 (208Pb) don't form a "type of radiation". "Alfageislun" could become more purely icelandic "tvöfrungageislun", "ferndagaislun", tvennageislun (tvenna- is the genitive plural of tvennur and stands for "of two pair", which indicates the two protons and two neutrons in the alpha particle).
alpha particle: fereind, fjóreind, emblukjarni (helium is the femine part, the "embla" (first woman in Scandinavian mythology) of the two original gases because it is the central element in the most important nucleosynthesis processes, it is a mother-element. The chemically vigourous hydrogen could be viewed as "askur"), tvöfrafernd, tvöfratvennur.
alpha radiation: tvöfrungageislun (radiation of the double magic particle, which can here only refer to alpha-radiation, there is no O-16 or Ca-48 radiation), ferndageislun (radiation of foursomes),
The oxygen-burning process is the last nuclear reaction in the star's core which does not proceed via the alpha process.
triple-alpha process (formation of carbon-12 by 3 alpha particles): þvöfrungaþreföldun, þrjálfun (þrí + alfa = þrjálfa (verb denoting the fusion of three alfa particles, þrja- is not one of the declension forms of þrír so it sounds akward an unnatural and for that reason I umlauted the "a": þrjálfa, the noun derivation of which is þrjálfun)
helium-3:
1) þrjórloft (þrjór- from þrí- (refering amount of nuclons) + fjór- (four, the amount of nucleons in normal, much more abundant He-4. This contraction of two numeral derivations is an Icelandic answer to the alternatively used term "trialphium", tri- (three) + alpha-particle (which consists of four nucleons + -ium (suffix denoting chemical elements). See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Helium-3
2) valeðalvetni (strange noble hydrogen)
3) þrenndareðalloft (threesome noble gas)
helion (helium-3 nucleus): þrjóreind (þrjór- from þrí (refering amount of nuclons) + fjór- (four, the amount of nucleons in normal, much more abundant He-4)
But there's a better one: tvöfrafernd, consisting of tvöfra- (double magic, a contraction of tvö- and töfra- (magic) and fernd (foursome). http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Magic_number_(physics)
The term tvöfrungur (double magic one, a magic nucleus) can be used to designate "alpha-radiation" since the other magic nuclei oxygen-16 (16O), calcium-40 (40Ca), calcium-48 (48Ca), nickel-48 (48Ni) and lead-208 (208Pb) don't form a "type of radiation". "Alfageislun" could become more purely icelandic "tvöfrungageislun", "ferndagaislun", tvennageislun (tvenna- is the genitive plural of tvennur and stands for "of two pair", which indicates the two protons and two neutrons in the alpha particle).
alpha particle: fereind, fjóreind, emblukjarni (helium is the femine part, the "embla" (first woman in Scandinavian mythology) of the two original gases because it is the central element in the most important nucleosynthesis processes, it is a mother-element. The chemically vigourous hydrogen could be viewed as "askur"), tvöfrafernd, tvöfratvennur.
alpha radiation: tvöfrungageislun (radiation of the double magic particle, which can here only refer to alpha-radiation, there is no O-16 or Ca-48 radiation), ferndageislun (radiation of foursomes),
The oxygen-burning process is the last nuclear reaction in the star's core which does not proceed via the alpha process.
triple-alpha process (formation of carbon-12 by 3 alpha particles): þvöfrungaþreföldun, þrjálfun (þrí + alfa = þrjálfa (verb denoting the fusion of three alfa particles, þrja- is not one of the declension forms of þrír so it sounds akward an unnatural and for that reason I umlauted the "a": þrjálfa, the noun derivation of which is þrjálfun)
helium-3:
1) þrjórloft (þrjór- from þrí- (refering amount of nuclons) + fjór- (four, the amount of nucleons in normal, much more abundant He-4. This contraction of two numeral derivations is an Icelandic answer to the alternatively used term "trialphium", tri- (three) + alpha-particle (which consists of four nucleons + -ium (suffix denoting chemical elements). See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Helium-3
2) valeðalvetni (strange noble hydrogen)
3) þrenndareðalloft (threesome noble gas)
helion (helium-3 nucleus): þrjóreind (þrjór- from þrí (refering amount of nuclons) + fjór- (four, the amount of nucleons in normal, much more abundant He-4)
Friday, October 19, 2012
oxygen - ozone
1) Oxygen (O2)
1) fúrefni
2) ildi
3) fjörloft
2) Ozone (O3)
illildi (evil oxygen, illur +ildi)
bláildi (blue oxygen)
þrildi (þrí + ildi)
1) fúrefni
2) ildi
3) fjörloft
2) Ozone (O3)
illildi (evil oxygen, illur +ildi)
bláildi (blue oxygen)
þrildi (þrí + ildi)
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