erbium
noun · first attested 1843
One small feldspar quarry outside Stockholm supplied the names of four separate chemical elements.
A soft silvery rare earth metal, element 68, whose pink Er3+ ions are used to amplify signals in optical fibers.
59.4265°N 18.3535°E · Q631733
Record
- Relationship
- Indirect, via a person or title
- Confidence
- Well attestedThe place link is the standard scholarly account.
- Attested
- 1843
- Part of speech
- noun
Explanations here are written for this atlas. Dictionary text is not copied; the sources are linked so the claim can be checked.
- Step 1
Ytterby mine
- In English
erbium
Carl Gustaf Mosander split the 'yttria' from Ytterby into three fractions in 1843 and named two of them erbia and terbia. The two names were later swapped by mistake, so today's erbium is what Mosander had called terbium. Yttrium, terbium and ytterbium all come from the same village name, making Ytterby the most prolific toponym in chemistry.