Myth & LegendGreek → English
Niobium
/naɪˈoʊbiəm/noun
A soft grey metal, element 41, used in superalloys and superconducting magnets.
The Greek roots
Νιόβη
Nióbē
Niobe, daughter of Tantalus
Literally: “of Niobe”
Follow a root:Νιόβη1 word
The story of the word
Heinrich Rose named it in 1844 for Niobe, because he had found the metal entangled with tantalum and wanted the family relation recorded: in myth she is Tantalus's daughter. American chemists went on calling it columbium for another century, until the name was settled internationally in 1949. Niobe wept for her fourteen slaughtered children until she turned to stone, and guides on Mount Sipylus still point out the weeping rock.
- How it travelled
- Ancient Greek → scientific coinage → English
- First recorded
- 1844
In a sentence
The MRI magnet runs on niobium-titanium wire cooled with liquid helium.
Jet engine blades hold their shape at temperature thanks to a little niobium in the alloy.