gallium
noun · first attested 1875
Its discoverer had to publish a denial that he had secretly named the element after himself.
A soft silvery metal, element 31, that melts at 29.8 degrees Celsius and will liquefy in a warm hand.
Record
- Relationship
- Indirect, via a person or title
- Confidence
- Well attestedThe place link is the standard scholarly account.
- Attested
- 1875
- 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
Gaul
- In English
gallium
Paul-Emile Lecoq de Boisbaudran found gallium by spectroscopy in Paris in 1875 and named it from Gallia, the Latin name for Gaul. Critics pointed out that Latin gallus means rooster, which is le coq in French, and accused him of self-naming. He denied it in print in 1877. Gallium had been predicted by Mendeleev as eka-aluminum, and its discovery was an early confirmation of the periodic table.