Magnesia Regional Unit

One ancient Greek district gave English magnesium, manganese and magnet.

Humphry Davy isolated the metal in 1808 and first proposed the name magnium, then settled on magnesium. The word descends from magnesia, which reaches back to Magnesia, a district of Thessaly. Which Magnesia is meant has been argued over: some accounts point instead to Magnesia ad Sipylum in Asia Minor, but the Thessalian district is the usual attribution.