Science & TechnologyGreek → English
Titanium
/taɪˈteɪniəm/noun
A light, strong, corrosion-resistant metal, number 22 in the periodic table.
The Greek roots
Τιτᾶνες
Titânes
the Titans, elder gods
Literally: “of the Titans”
Follow a root:Τιτᾶνες1 word
The story of the word
Martin Heinrich Klaproth named it in 1795 and said plainly that the name should describe nothing about the substance, which is why he reached for mythology rather than a property. He had done the same six years earlier with uranium, taken from the newly found planet. William Gregor had actually found the metal first, in black sand from a Cornish stream valley in 1791, and never got the naming.
- How it travelled
- Ancient Greek → scientific coinage → English
- First recorded
- 1796
Same family
Titantitanictitanate
In a sentence
The frame is titanium, which is why it costs what it costs and weighs what it weighs.