Wordorigins.org

Tantalum, element 73, is named for Tantalus, the mythical king of the Phrygians, who, for his sins, was condemned to eternally suffer thirst and hunger in Hades by being made to stand in a pool of water that receded when he stooped to drink and with a branch of fruit hanging over him that rose higher when he reached for it. The verb tantalize also comes from his name.

The element was discovered by Swedish chemist Anders Ekberg in 1802. Ekberg explains his naming here, a translation of what he wrote in Kongliga Vetenskaps Academiens Handlingar in that year:

This new recruit among the metals I call TANTALUM, partly following the custom which favours names from Mythology, partly in allusion to its incapacity, when immersed in acid, to absorb any and be saturated.¹

The name starts appearing in English scientific literature shortly after its discovery.

The chemical symbol for tantalum is Ta.

¹Oxford English Dictionary, tantalum, 2nd Edition, 1989, Oxford University Press, accessed 29 October 2009, http://dictionary.oed.com/cgi/entry/50246880. 

Oxford University Press has just published the Historical Thesaurus of the Oxford English Dictionary. I haven’t seen it and this is not a review, but given OUP’s track record with such reference works, it would be surprising if it were anything but an invaluable reference. At $400, though, it’s not for everyone, but taking a gander at it the next time you’re in your local library will certainly be worthwhile.

The OUP Blog has some fun facts about the HTOED.

And OUP-US is running a contest in which a copy of the HTOED is one of the prizes.

(Disclosure: Oxford University Press is the publisher of my book, Word Myths: Debunking Linguistic Urban Legends. Additionally, if you click through the links and make a purchase, I receive a very small referral payment from Amazon.com.)

Hafnium, element 72, was discovered by Danish physicist Dirk Coster and and Hungarian physicist Georg von Hevesy in 1922. The pair named the element after the city of Copenhagen. Hafnia is a modern Latin name for the city, formed from the Danish havn, or harbor. They wrote in the 20 January 1923 issue of Nature:

For the new element we propose the name Hafnium (Hafniae = Copenhagen).¹

Hafnium has the chemical symbol Hf.

In 1911 French chemist Georges Urbain claimed to have discovered element 72, a claim that was later proven wrong. Urbain named his discovery after the Celts. Urbain wrote in the Journal of the Chemical Society in that year:

The name celtium is given to the corresponding element, and the symbol Ct assigned to it.²

¹Oxford English Dictionary, hafnium, 2nd Edition, 1989, Oxford University Press, accessed 28 October 2009, http://dictionary.oed.com/cgi/entry/50101316.

²Oxford English Dictionary, celtium, 2nd Edition, 1989, Oxford University Press, accessed 28 October 2009, http://dictionary.oed.com/cgi/entry/50035436. 

Lutetium, element 71, was independently discovered by three different researchers in 1907: French chemist Georges Urbain, Austrian scientist Carl Auer von Welsbach, and American chemist Charles James. Urbain was granted priority in the question over who discovered it first, and his name, lutetium, was selected as the official one. Although von Welsbach’s name, cassiopeium, after the constellation Cassiopeia, is found in some of the older chemical literature.¹

The element’s name comes from the Latin name for the city that was on the site of what is now Paris, Lutecia.²

Lutetium has the chemical symbol Lu.

¹Oxford English Dictionary, cassiopeium, 2nd Edition, 1989, Oxford University Press, accessed 26 October 2009, http://dictionary.oed.com/cgi/entry/50034166.

²Oxford English Dictionary, lutetium, 2nd Edition, 1989, Oxford University Press, accessed 26 October 2009, http://dictionary.oed.com/cgi/entry/50137135.

Ytterbium, element 70, is yet another element named after the mining village of Ytterby, Sweden. The metal was discovered and named in 1878 by Swiss chemist Jean Charles Galissard de Marignac.¹ Ytterbium has the chemical symbol Yb.

The other elements named after Ytterby are yttrium, erbium, and terbium.

¹Oxford English Dictionary, ytterbite, 2nd Edition, 1989, Oxford University Press, accessed 25 October 2009, http://dictionary.oed.com/cgi/entry/50290659. 

Thulium, element 69, is yet another example of an element named after someplace in Scandinavia, or in this case, Scandinavia itself. The element was discovered in 1879 by Swedish chemist Per Teodor Cleve, who dubbed it thulium, after his native land; from the 12 September 1879 issue of Chemical News and Journal of Physical Science:

For the radical of the oxide placed between ytterbia and erbia [...] I propose the name of Thullium [sic], derived from Thulé, the ancient name of Scandinavia.¹

Erbium, element 68, is yet another element named after the mining village of Ytterby, Sweden. The metal was discovered and named in 1843 by Swedish chemist Carl Gustaf Mosander.¹ Erbium has the chemical symbol Er.

The other elements named after Ytterby are yttrium, ytterbium, and terbium.

¹Oxford English Dictionary, erbium, 2nd Edition, 1989, Oxford University Press, accessed 23 October 2009, http://dictionary.oed.com/cgi/entry/50077427. 

The Huffington Post has some photos of signs that use a few too many quotation marks. The God and the fireworks signs are the best.

Holmium, element 67, isn’t named for Ytterby, Sweden, but it comes close, geographically at least. The metal was discovered independently in 1878 by Swiss chemists Marc Delafontaine and Jacques-Louis Soret and by Swedish chemist and geologist Per Teodor Cleve. The latter describes how he came up with the name in the 12 September 1879 issue of Chemical News and Journal of Physical Science:

I propose for this metal the name of Holmium, Ho, derived from the latinized name of Stockholm, in the neighbourhood of which so many minerals rich in yttria are to be found.¹

Holmium has the chemical symbol Ho.

¹Oxford English Dictionary, holmium, 2nd Edition, 1989, Oxford University Press, accessed 22 October 2009, http://dictionary.oed.com/cgi/entry/50107243.

Dysprosium, element 66, was isolated in 1886 by French chemist Paul Émile Lecoq de Boisbaudran. Because of the difficulty he had in separating the element from the other substances in the sample, De Boisbaudran dubbed the new element after the Greek δυσπρόσιτος (dysprositos), meaning difficult to access.¹

Dysprosium has the chemical symbol Dy.

¹Oxford English Dictionary, dysprosium, 2nd Edition, 1989, Oxford University Press, accessed 21 October 2009, http://dictionary.oed.com/cgi/entry/50071430.