Paul Lewing on sun 25 nov 01
As I was answering Lynn's question about the Wild Rose Temmoku, a question
that has been in the back of my mind for some time surfaced again, about the
name of the element lithium.
There are a bunch of words out there with the root word "lith", like
"Neolithic", "Paleolithic", "lithosphere", "batholith", and some others, and
in all of them the "lith" part denotes "rock" or "stone". Does it also in
the name of the element lithium? And if so, who decided that and why? It
seems that if you were going to name an element with a term that referred to
rocks, you'd pick a substance much more common in rocks, like what we know
as silicon or aluminum, not something as rare in rocks as lithium.
And for that matter, is the word "litharge" derived from the same root?
How's that for an esoteric question, only tangetially related to ceramics?
Paul Lewing, Seattle
Alecia Miller on mon 26 nov 01
All of the words you mentioned come from the Greek word Lithos (stone).
Litharge's other root is the Greek word arguros (silver).
-Alecia
(Who almost always has a dictionary nearby to satisfy my passion for word
origins.)
-----Original Message-----
From: Ceramic Arts Discussion List [mailto:CLAYART@LSV.CERAMICS.ORG]On
Behalf Of Paul Lewing
Sent: Sunday, November 25, 2001 8:50 PM
To: CLAYART@LSV.CERAMICS.ORG
Subject: Lithium-just the word this time
As I was answering Lynn's question about the Wild Rose Temmoku, a question
that has been in the back of my mind for some time surfaced again, about the
name of the element lithium.
There are a bunch of words out there with the root word "lith", like
"Neolithic", "Paleolithic", "lithosphere", "batholith", and some others, and
in all of them the "lith" part denotes "rock" or "stone". Does it also in
the name of the element lithium? And if so, who decided that and why? It
seems that if you were going to name an element with a term that referred to
rocks, you'd pick a substance much more common in rocks, like what we know
as silicon or aluminum, not something as rare in rocks as lithium.
And for that matter, is the word "litharge" derived from the same root?
How's that for an esoteric question, only tangetially related to ceramics?
Paul Lewing, Seattle
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Dennis Davis on mon 26 nov 01
The following is from http://www.webelements.com/
"Discovered by: Johan August Arfvedson
Discovered at: Stockholm, Sweden
Discovered when: 1817
Origin of name: From the Greek word "lithos" meaning "stone", apparently because
it was discovered from a mineral source whereas the other two common Group 1
elements, sodium and potassium, were discovered from plant sources."
The URL has the periodic table which many of us haven't seen since high school or
college chemistry (and in my case that was about 50 years ago). I enjoyed the
refresher.
Dennis in Warrenton, VA
Paul Lewing wrote:
> As I was answering Lynn's question about the Wild Rose Temmoku, a question that
> has been in the back of my mind for some time surfaced again, about the name of
> the element lithium. There are a bunch of words out there with the root word
> "lith", like "Neolithic", "Paleolithic", "lithosphere", "batholith", and some
> others, and in all of them the "lith" part denotes "rock" or "stone". Does it
> also in the name of the element lithium? And if so, who decided that and why?
> It seems that if you were going to name an element with a term that referred to
> rocks, you'd pick a substance much more common in rocks, like what we know as
> silicon or aluminum, not something as rare in rocks as lithium. And for that
> matter, is the word "litharge" derived from the same root?
> How's that for an esoteric question, only tangetially related to ceramics?
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