Wordorigins.org

See polonium

Polonium, element 84, was discovered in 1898 by Marie and Pierre Curie. The pair named the element after Marie Curie’s native land of Poland;¹ Polonia is a post-classical Latin name for that country.

Bismuth is originally the German name for element 83. The name was originally wismuth or wismut, which is the current form in modern German. The “B” form makes its appearance in the works of 16th century mineralogist Georgius Agricola, who latinized the name as bisemutem. The word makes its English appearance in John Wilkins’s 1668 An Essay Towards a Real Character, and a Philosophical Language:

Imperfect kinds of Metal [...] used for Making of Pewter, being of shining brittle substance: Bismute, Tin-glass.¹

The chemical symbol for bismuth is Bi.

¹Oxford English Dictionary, bismuth, 2nd Edition, 1989, Oxford University Press, accessed 9 November 2009, http://dictionary.oed.com/cgi/entry/50022666. 

Lead, element 82, has been known since antiquity, and its name dates back to Old English. It is found in the Old English translation of Bede’s Ecclesiastical History of the English People, written c.900 (Bede, an 8th century Northumbrian monk, wrote in Latin. The English translation is a bit later.):

Swylce hit [ref: þis land] is eac berende on wecga orum ares & isernes, leades & seolfres.
(So it [ref: this land] is also bearing within it metal ores of copper & iron, lead & silver.¹

The chemical symbol for lead is Pb, from the Latin name for the metal, plumbum.

¹Oxford English Dictionary, lead, n.¹, 2nd Edition, 1989, Oxford University Press, accessed 8 November 2009, http://dictionary.oed.com/cgi/entry/50130886.

Thallium, element 81, was independently discovered in 1861 by British chemist William Crookes and French chemist Claude-Auguste Lamy. Crookes explains the name he bestowed on the element in the 16 March 1861 issue of The Chemical News:

I have thought [...] to propose for it the provisional name of Thallium, from the Greek θαλλός, or Latin thallus, a budding twig [...] which I have chosen as the green line which it communicates to the spectrum recals [sic] with peculiar vividness the fresh colour of vegetation at the present time.¹

The chemical symbol for thallium is Tl.

¹Oxford English Dictionary, thallium, 2nd Edition, 1989, Oxford University Press, accessed 7 November 2009, http://dictionary.oed.com/cgi/entry/50250248. 

See ghost.

Mercury, element 80, has been known since antiquity. The name comes from the association of the metal with the planet Mercury by medieval alchemists. English use of the name dates to the 14th century and it is found in Chaucer’s Canon Yeoman’s Tale, from c.1395, the Canterbury Tale that is a treasure trove of alchemical terms:

What sholde I tellen ech proporcion
Of thynges whiche that we werche upon—
[...]
And of the esy fir, and smart also,
Which that was maad, and of the care and wo
That we hadde in oure matires sublyming,
And in amalgamyng and calcenyng
Of quyksilver, yclept Mercurie crude?

(What should I tell of each proportion
Of things which that we work upon—
[...]
And of the slow fire, and hot also,
Which that was made, and of the care and woe
That we had in our matters subliming,
And in amalgamating and calcining
Of quicksilver, called raw Mercury?)¹

See mercury.

I seem to be on a Supreme Court kick this week. This time it’s Justice Antonin Scalia attempting to school a lawyer on proper usage during oral arguments for Hemi Group v. City of New York held this past Tuesday:

I love South Park. Not only is it funny, iconoclastic, and an equal-opportunity offender, but they very often express a core truth that blasts away society’s preconceptions and prejudices. In this clip they take on the subject of definitions of offensive words, in particular the growing use of fag and gay as general terms of contempt that have little or nothing to do with homosexuality.

The full episode can be seen here. (Warning: the full episode is NSFW)