manganese

February 2, 2024

Black-and-white photo of dark, round stones lying on sand — Manganese nodules on the sea floor

2 February 2024

Beginning chemistry students frequently confuse manganese and magnesium, but the confusion is nothing new. The two were routinely conflated by even the best chemists until the late eighteenth century.

Manganese is a chemical element with atomic number 25 and the symbol Mn. It is a hard, brittle, silvery metal with a wide range of uses, notably in making steel alloys and in glassmaking. It was first isolated in the 1770s.

Like magnesium, the name manganese probably comes from the name of the Greek province Μαγνησία (Magnesia), although the form is difficult to explain etymologically and not all accept it as correct. Manganese first appears in Middle French in the late sixteenth century as a name for a manganese oxide ore, black manganese, used in glass making.

John Florio’s 1598 Italian-English dictionary, A Worlde of Wordes, records the Italian use of the name:

Manganese, a stuffe or stone to make glasses with. Also a kinde of minerall stone.

And English use of the name is recorded as early as 1651 in the works of Samuel Hartlib, who might today be classified as a “science communicator”:

Let him take notice of the several stones found in this Isle, as of Free-stones for building; Cobbels and rough hard stones for Paving […] Lapis Calaminaris is lately found in Summerset-shire, by the which Copper is made Brasse: Manganese for those that make white Glasse, lately found in the North.

In 1779 Louis Guyton de Morveau proposed that the black magnesia (i.e, manganese oxide) be called manganese to distinguish it from white magnesia (i.e., magnesium oxide):

Le minéral connu sous le nom de Magnesia nigra, que nous sommes convenus de traduire par le mot Manganèse, pour le distinguer de la magnésie blanche* est d’un usage sort ancien dans la verrierie.
(The mineral known by the name black magnesia, which we have agreed to translate with the word manganese, to distinguish it from white magnesia, is of ancient use in glassmaking.)

The note reads:

M. Bergman le nomme pour le même raison en latin Magnesium.
(For the same reason, Monsieur Bergman calls it in Latin magnesium.)

From this point on, the distinction between manganese and magnesium in nomenclature came into general use, but chemistry students continued to be confounded by the two elements.

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Sources:

Florio, John. A Worlde of Wordes. London: Arnold Hatfield for Edward Blount, 1598, 214. Early English Books Online.

Hartlib, Samuel. Samuel Hartlib His Legacie: Or an Enlargement of the Discourse of Husbandry Used in Brabant and Flaunders. London: H. Hills for Richard Wodenothe, 1651, 86–87. Early English Books Online.

Miśkowiec, Pawel. “Name Game: The Naming History of the Chemical Elements—Part 1—from Antiquity till the End of 18th Century.” Foundations of Chemistry, 1 November 2022. DOI: 10.1007/s10698-022-09448-5.

de Morveau, Louis Guyton. “Observations d’une Manganèse étoilee artificielle.” Observations et Memoires sur la Physique, sur L’Histoire Naturelle et sur les Arts et Métiers, 13, 1779, 470–73 at 470. Biodiversity Heritage Library.

Oxford English Dictionary, third edition, September 2000, s.v. manganese, n.

Photo credit: US Geological Survey, 2010. Wikimedia Commons. Public domain image.

Africa

January 31, 2024

31 January 2024

The name of Africa, the second largest continent in both size and population, comes from the Latin Africanus. The Latin name, in turn, probably comes from Ifran, the name of a people in what is now Tunisia and eastern Algeria, ancestors of the modern Amazigh (Berber) people. Various origins for the tribal name have been suggested including afar, a Tamazight (Berber) word for dust (“dusty land”), and ifri, a Tamazight word for cave (“land of cave dwellers”). But the definitive origin has probably been lost to the ages.

Its use as a place name in English dates to the Old English period. It appears in the opening of the Old English translation of Orosius’s Historiarum adversum paganos (History Against the Pagans). Orosius wrote it in the early fifth century CE, and the Old English translation dates to the turn of the ninth century. The text is less of a translation and more of an adaptation and expansion of Orosius’s Latin text:

Ure yldran ealne ðysne ymbhwyrft ðyses middangeardes, cwæþ Orosius, swa swa Oceanus ymbligeþ utan, þone man garsægc hatað, on þreo todældon and hy þa þry dælas on þreo tonemdon: Asiam and Europem and Affricam, þeah ðe sume men sædon þæt þær næran buton twegan dælas, Asia and þæt oþer Europe. Asia is befangen mid Oceanus þæm garsecge suþan and norþan and eastan and swa ealne middangeard from eastdæle healfne behæfð. Þonne on ðæm norþdæle, þæt is Asia on þa swiþran healfe in Danai þære ie, ðær Asia and Europe togædre licgað. And þonne of þære ilcan ie Danai suþ andlang Wendelsæs and þonne wiþ westan Alexandria þære byrig Asia and Affica togædere licgeað.
(Orosius said that our ancestors divided the whole circle of this earth into three parts, surrounded by the sea called Ocean, and they named these three parts Asia and Europe and Africa, though some people said that there were only two parts, Asia and the other being Europe. Asia is encompassed by the sea of Ocean south and north and east and contains all the eastern half of the earth. In the northern part, that is Asia on the right side of the river Don, there the boundaries of Asia and Europe run together. And then from the river Don the border runs south along the Mediterranean and then Asia and Africa meet west of the city of Alexandria.)

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Sources:

Everett-Heath, John. Concise Oxford Dictionary of World Place Names, sixth ed. Oxford: Oxford UP, 2020, s.v. Africa. Oxfordreference.com.

Godden, Malcolm R., ed. The Old English History of the World: An Anglo-Saxon Rewriting of Orosius. Dumbarton Oaks Medieval Library 44. Cambridge: Harvard UP, 2016, 24.

Oxford English Dictionary, third edition, September 2012, s.v. African, n. and adj.

Image credit: London, British Library, MS Royal 12 F.IV, fol. 135v. Wikimedia Commons. Public domain image.

Europe

January 29, 2024

29 January 2024

The toponym Europe is widely claimed to come from ancient Greek Εὐρώπη (Europé), the name of a Phoenician princess of Tyre who was abducted by Zeus in the form a bull. The tale dates to the Mycenaean period (1750–1050 BCE). Variations of the tale as to exactly who Europa was and where she came from exist, but the basic element of abduction by the god in the form of a bull is consistent. The myth does not explain how her name became associated with the continent.

Several alternatives to the mythical origin have been proposed. One has it coming from the ancient Greek εὐρωπός (europos) meaning wide or broad. Another has it coming from either the Akkadian erebu (to go down, set) or the Phoenician ereb (evening, west) making the name something like “land of the setting sun.” Both of these are unlikely.

Its use as a place name in English dates to the Old English period. It appears in the opening of the Old English translation of Orosius’s Historiarum adversum paganos (History Against the Pagans). Orosius wrote it in the early fifth century CE, and the Old English translation dates to the turn of the ninth century. It’s less of a translation and more of an adaptation and expansion of Orosius’s Latin text:

Ure yldran ealne ðysne ymbhwyrft ðyses middangeardes, cwæþ Orosius, swa swa Oceanus ymbligeþ utan, þone man garsægc hatað, on þreo todældon and hy þa þry dælas on þreo tonemdon: Asiam and Europem and Affricam, þeah ðe sume men sædon þæt þær næran buton twegan dælas, Asia and þæt oþer Europe. Asia is befangen mid Oceanus þæm garsecge suþan and norþan and eastan and swa ealne middangeard from eastdæle healfne behæfð. Þonne on ðæm norþdæle, þæt is Asia on þa swiþran healfe in Danai þære ie, ðær Asia and Europe togædre licgað. And þonne of þære ilcan ie Danai suþ andlang Wendelsæs and þonne wiþ westan Alexandria þære byrig Asia and Affica togædere licgeað.
(Orosius said that our ancestors divided the whole circle of this earth into three parts, surrounded by the sea called Ocean, and they named these three parts Asia and Europe and Africa, though some people said that there were only two parts, Asia and the other being Europe. Asia is encompassed by the sea of Ocean south and north and east and contains all the eastern half of the earth. In the northern part, that is Asia on the right side of the river Don, there the boundaries of Asia and Europe run together. And then from the river Don the border runs south along the Mediterranean and then Asia and Africa meet west of the city of Alexandria.)

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Sources:

Everett-Heath, John. Concise Oxford Dictionary of World Place Names, sixth ed. Oxford: Oxford UP, 2020. Oxfordreference.com.

Godden, Malcolm R., ed. The Old English History of the World: An Anglo-Saxon Rewriting of Orosius. Dumbarton Oaks Medieval Library 44. Cambridge: Harvard UP, 2016, 24.

Oxford English Dictionary, third edition, June 2008, s.v. Europe, n., Europa, n., European, adj. and n.

Image credit: London, British Library, MS Royal 12 F.IV, fol. 135v. Wikimedia Commons. Public domain image.

magnesium

January 26, 2024

26 January 2024

Magnesium is a chemical element with atomic number 12 and the symbol Mg. It is a shiny, gray metal with low density, low melting point, and high reactivity. It has a wide variety of uses and is commonly used in aluminum alloys for aircraft, automobiles, and other applications demanding a strong but light metal. Magnesium easily ignites and burns with a bright, white light, making it useful for various illumination and pyrotechnic applications.

The element was not isolated until the early nineteenth century, but the name dates to antiquity. It comes from the ancient Greek Μαγνῆτις λίθος (Magnetis lithos) or Magnesian stone, referring to a lodestone or magnet. The mineral is named after one of three places that were named Magnesia in the ancient world where the ore was found, one in Thessaly and two in Asia Minor. In Hellenistic/Byzantine Greek starting in the second century CE, μαγνησία (magnesia) referred to several different ores. The word was borrowed into post-classical Latin and from there into English by the fourteenth century.

Medieval alchemists considered various types of magnesia to be constituents of the philosopher’s stone, and Geoffrey Chaucer records this idea in the Canon Yeoman’s Tale from c.1387:

Also ther was a disciple of Plato,
That on a tyme seyde his maister to,
As his book Senior wol bere witnesse,
And this was his demande in soothfastnesse:
"Telle me the name of the privee stoon."
And Plato answerde unto hym anoon,
"Take the stoon that men name Titanos."
"Which is that?" quod he. "Magnasia is the same,"
Seyde Plato. "Ye, sire, and is it thus?
This is ignotum per ignocius.
What is Magnasia, good sire, I yow preye?"
"It is a water that is maad, I seye,
Of elementes foure," quod Plato.
"Telle me the roote, good sire," quod he tho,
"Of that water, if it be youre wil."
"Nay, nay," quod Plato, "certein, that I nyl.
The philosophres sworn were everychoon
That they sholden discovere it unto noon,
Ne in no book it write in no manere.
(Also, there was a disciple of Plato,
That one time said to his master,
As his book Senior will bear witness,
And this was his question in truth:
“Tell me the name of the secret stone.”
And Plato answered him at once,
“Take the stone that men name Titanos.”
Which is that?” said he. “Magnesia is the same,”
Said Plato. “Yes, sir, and is it thus?
This is explaining the unknown with more unknowns.
What is Magnesia, good sir, I pray you?”
“It is a liquid that is made, I say,
Of the four elements,” said Plato.
“Telle me the basic constituent, good sir,” he then said,
“Of that liquid, if it be your will.”
“Nay, nay,” said Plato, “certainly I won’t.
The philosophers were sworn every single one
That they should reveal it to no one,
Nor in any book write it in any manner.”)

But by the seventeenth century magnesia had become a name for the element we now call manganese. In his 1677 Natural History of Oxford-shire, Robert Plot records this usage:

There is also near Thame on Cuttlebrook-side, another Iron-colour'd stone, but more spungy than the former, and including within it a blackish kind of Cinder; the most like, of any thing I yet have seen, to Magnesia (in the Glass-houses, called Manganese) only it wants of its closeness of texture and weight.

And by the late eighteenth century the form magnesium is being used to refer to manganese. From a 23 April 1781 letter by chemist Joseph Black to James Watt:

I have lately made some on Manganeze [sic] and find the purest I can get contains some lead and I suspect that the Metal you got from it was mostly Lead—The Swedish Chemists also have got a Metal from it \they call it Magnesium/ which they say is hard and brittle and more difficult to melt than Iron.

But this nomenclature created problems, with manganese being confused with other magnesia minerals. In his 1784 Travels into Poland, Russia, Sweden, and Denmark, William Coxe records this confusion:

manganesium* salitum, or manganese united to the muriatick acid

The note reads:

* In the original it is magnesium; but Mr. Withering informs us, that it is now changed by the concurrence of professor Bergman, to manganesium, in order to prevent confusion from its similarity to magnesia.

Finally, in 1808 chemist Humphry Davy isolated what we now know as the element magnesium, but he originally dubbed it magnium:

These new substances will demand names; and on the same principles as I have named the bases of the fixed alkalies, potassium and sodium, I shall venture to denominate the metals from the alkaline earths barium, strontium, calcium, and magnium; the last of these words is undoubtedly objectionable, but magnesium has been already applied to metallic manganese, and would consequently have been an equivocal term.

But Davy recanted this decision, and by the 1812 publication of his Elements of Chemical Philosophy, he had changed the name to magnesium:

In my first paper on the decomposition of the earths, published in 1808, I called the metal from magnesia, magnium, fearing lest, if called magnesium, it should be confounded with the name formerly applied to manganese. The candid criticisms of some philosophical friends have induced me to apply the termination in the usual manner.

Now, over two hundred years later, the confusion over exactly what magnesium is has ended, and students of chemistry, unlike their predecessor, the Canon’s Yeoman, are no longer learning ignotum per ignocius.

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Sources:

Black, Joseph. Letter to James Watt, 23 April 1781. Partners in Science: Letters of James Watt and Joseph Black. Eric Robinson and Douglas McKie, eds. London: Constable, 1970, 111.

Chaucer, Geoffrey. “The Canon Yeoman’s Tale.” The Canterbury Tales, 8.1448–66. Harvard’s Geoffrey Chaucer Website.

Coxe, William. Travels into Poland, Russia, Sweden, and Denmark, vol. 3 of 3. Dublin: S. Price, et al., 1784, 262. Eighteenth Century Collections Online.

Davy, Humphry. “Electro-Chemical Researches, on the Decomposition of the Earths; with Observations on the Metals Obtained from the Alkaline Earths, and on the Amalgam Procured from Ammonia.” Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society, 98, 30 June 1808, 333–70 at 346.

———. Elements of Chemical Philosophy. Philadelphia: Bradford and Inskeep, 1812, 198. HathiTrust Digital Archive.

Oxford English Dictionary, third edition, March 2000, s.v. magnesium, n., magnesia, n., magnium, n., magnes, n.

Plot, Robert. The Natural History of Oxford-shire. Oxford: Theater, 1677, 79. Early English Books Online.

Photo credit: Hiroaki Nakamura, 2007. Wikimedia Commons. https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Magnesium_Sparks.jpg Used under a Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Unported license.

Asia

January 24, 2024

24 January 2024

The origin of Asia, the name of the largest continent, is uncertain. It could from the Hittite name for a land in what is now eastern Anatolia (i.e., Turkey); there is a c.1235 BCE reference to a Hittite victory over the land of Assuva or Asuwa. And Herodotus, writing in the fifth century BCE, uses Ἀσία (Asia) to refer to Anatolia.

English use of Asia dates to Old English, where the name was acquired via Latin. One of its appearances is in the opening of the Old English translation of Orosius’s Historiarum adversum paganos (History Against the Pagans). Orosius wrote the history in the early fifth century CE, and the Old English translation dates to the turn of the ninth century. It’s less of a translation and more of an adaptation and expansion of Orosius’s Latin text:

Ure yldran ealne ðysne ymbhwyrft ðyses middangeardes, cwæþ Orosius, swa swa Oceanus ymbligeþ utan, þone man garsægc hatað, on þreo todældon and hy þa þry dælas on þreo tonemdon: Asiam and Europem and Affricam, þeah ðe sume men sædon þæt þær næran buton twegan dælas, Asia and þæt oþer Europe. Asia is befangen mid Oceanus þæm garsecge suþan and norþan and eastan and swa ealne middangeard from eastdæle healfne behæfð. Þonne on ðæm norþdæle, þæt is Asia on þa swiþran healfe in Danai þære ie, ðær Asia and Europe togædre licgað. And þonne of þære ilcan ie Danai suþ andlang Wendelsæs and þonne wiþ westan Alexandria þære byrig Asia and Affica togædere licgeað.
(Orosius said that our ancestors divided the whole circle of this earth into three parts, surrounded by the sea called Ocean, and they named these three parts Asia and Europe and Africa, though some people said that there were only two parts, Asia and the other being Europe. Asia is encompassed by the sea of Ocean south and north and east and contains all the eastern half of the earth. In the northern part, that is Asia on the right side of the river Don, there the boundaries of Asia and Europe run togehter. And then from the river Don the border runs south along the Mediterranean and then Asia and Africa meet west of the city of Alexandria.)

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Sources:

Everett-Heath, John. Concise Oxford Dictionary of World Place Names, sixth ed. Oxford: Oxford UP, 2020, s.v. Asia. Oxfordreference.com.

Godden, Malcolm R., ed. The Old English History of the World: An Anglo-Saxon Rewriting of Orosius. Dumbarton Oaks Medieval Library 44. Cambridge: Harvard UP, 2016, 24.

Oxford English Dictionary, third edition, September 2021, s.v. Asian, n. and adj.

Image credit: London, British Library, MS Royal 12 F.IV, fol. 135v. Wikimedia Commons. Public domain image.