Post by WolfgangWolfram è assai piú comune di Tungsten.
Ci sono due altri elementi dai cui nomi tedeschi derivano i relativi
simboli chimici: il <Kalium>, 'potassio', e il <Natrium>, 'sodio'.
Non direi che Kalium e Natrium siano nomi tedeschi; piuttosto che
sono stati coniati da tedeschi. Direi invece che Kalium viene
dall'arabo, mentre Natrium ha una storia ancora più antica.
Durante lo sviluppo della chimica nei secoli diciottesimo e
diciannovesimo, ci si trovò nella necessità di nominare
elementi fino ad allora sconosciuti.
Per esempio: nitron = nitrato + geinomai = generare (nome dovuto a
Jean Antoine Chaptal, 1790); Lavoisier aveva proposto "azoe",
da cui l'italiano azoto.
(I nitrati erano già noti dalle loro proprietà e dalla parentela con la
soda, sebbene non se ne conoscesse la composizione chimica.)
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Potash (Neolatin potassa, Potassium carbonate, K2CO3) was obtained from
the ashes of plant material. The ashes was leached and the solution was
evaporated to dryness, an operation at one time carried out in iron
pots: hence the name from "pot" and "ashes." The English term appears
for the first time in 1648, and is a loan-translation of Dutch
potaschen.
From antiquity to the Middle Ages no difference was made between potash
and soda (Sodium carbonate, Na2CO3), both were named by the Arabs
Alkali. This word was derived from qalay, "to fry or roast in a pan".
Al-qali is "the substance that had been roasted" or "ashes of the plant
saltwort. In Europe, both substances were named natron.
Martin Heinrich Klaproth, in his paper for the Royal Academy of Berlin
of 26 January 1797, was the first to distinguish the both alkalis: he
suggested the name kali for vegetable alkali and natron for mineral
alkali (see Sodium / Natrium.)
Natron
Derives via French and Spanish from Arabic natrun or nitrun, which
derives from Greek nitron (= "soda") (e.g. Herodotus II, 86-87, where
the form litron occures). The Greek derives with certainty from AE nTrj
or nTry.t (netjeri). The Egyptians distinguished between nTrj Sm'
("southern natron"), stemming from el-Kab, and nTrj mHw ("northern
natron"), stemming from Wadi Natrun (HWB p.445). The Egyptian word was
also borrowed into Akkadian (nit(i)ru) and Hebrew (neter, cf. Jer.
2:22, used for washing). The element Natrium (symbol: Na) derives its
name from natron; alternative name in English: Sodium, from soda.
Natron is a natural mixture of sodium carbonate and sodium bicarbonate
(McGready). Niter is potassium nitrate (KNO3), also called saltpeter,
but originally the word was used as equivalent for natron.
Fonte: <http://www.vanderkrogt.net/elements/>
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Ciao
Enrico