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41 of the 118 known elements have names associated with, or specifically named for, places around the world or among astronomical objects. 32 of these have names tied to the places on Earth, and the other nine are named after to Solar System objects: helium for the Sun; tellurium for the Earth; selenium for the Moon; mercury (indirectly), uranium, neptunium and plutonium after their respective ...
Fluorine is a chemical element; it has symbol F and atomic number 9. It is the lightest halogen [note 1] and exists at standard conditions as pale yellow diatomic gas. Fluorine is extremely reactive as it reacts with all other elements except for the light inert gases. It is highly toxic.
The word "fluorine" derives from the Latin stem of the main source mineral, fluorite, which was first mentioned in 1529 by Georgius Agricola, the "father of mineralogy". He described fluorite as a flux—an additive that helps melt ores and slags during smelting. [1] [2] Fluorite stones were called schone flusse in the German of the time ...
At 400 ppb, fluorine is estimated to be the 24th most common element in the universe. It is comparably rare for a light element (elements tend to be more common the lighter they are). All of the elements from atomic number 6 (carbon) to atomic number 12 (magnesium) are hundreds or thousands of times more common than fluorine except for 11 (sodium).
The English names of these elements all have the ending -ine. Fluorine's name comes from the Latin word fluere, meaning "to flow", because it was derived from the mineral fluorite, which was used as a flux in metalworking. Chlorine's name comes from the Greek word chloros, meaning "greenish-yellow".
The list starts with 🜚 for gold and has early conventions that would later change: here ☿ is tin and ♃ electrum; ☾ is silver but ☽ is mercury. Many of the 'symbols' are simply abbreviations of the Greek word or phrase. View the files on Commons for the list of symbols. [citation needed]
Scandium comes from the Latin word for Scandinavia. Thulium is from the Ancient Greek word for the remote Arctic land that the Romans called ultima Thule. [24] [28] A number of other elements are named after classical words for various places. Ruthenium is from the Latin name for the region including Belarus, Ukraine, and Russia. [29]
The classical elements were first proposed independently by several early Pre-Socratic philosophers. [6] Greek philosophers had debated which substance was the arche ("first principle"), or primordial element from which everything else was made. Thales (c. 626/623 – c. 548/545 BC) believed that water was this principle.