Science & TechnologyGreek → English
Barium
/ˈbɛriəm/noun
A soft silvery alkaline earth metal, element 56, best known from the barium meal that makes the gut visible on X-ray.
The Greek roots
βαρύς
barýs
heavy
Literally: “the heavy one”
Follow a root:βαρύς5 words
The story of the word
Humphry Davy isolated the metal by electrolysis in 1808 and named it from baryta, the earth it came out of. That name came from barytes, what mineralogists called heavy spar, a white stone that surprises the hand with its weight. The same βαρύς gives the baritone, a heavy voice, and the barometer, which weighs the air.
- How it travelled
- Ancient Greek → scientific coinage → English
- First recorded
- 1808
Same family
barometerbaritoneisobarbaryon
In a sentence
He had to drink the barium before the scan, and complained about it for a week.