Myth & LegendGreek → English
Promethium
/prəˈmiːθiəm/noun
A radioactive rare earth metal, element 61, with no stable isotope.
The Greek roots
Προμηθεύς
Promētheús
Prometheus, the forethinker
Literally: “of the one who thinks ahead”
Follow a root:Προμηθεύς2 words
The story of the word
Element 61 refused to turn up in any ore, and it was finally separated from uranium fission products at Oak Ridge in 1945. The name honours the Titan who stole fire and handed it to humanity, and the people who chose it meant the warning in the myth as much as the compliment. His name means forethought; his brother Epimetheus, afterthought, is the one who married Pandora.
- How it travelled
- Ancient Greek → scientific coinage → English
- First recorded
- 1948
In a sentence
Promethium once glowed on watch dials after radium was abandoned.
Every atom of promethium on earth is decaying, which is why none of it is old.