Well attestedNamed from the place
virginium
noun · first attested 1930
An element named for Virginia that turned out never to have been detected at all.
A proposed and now rejected name for chemical element 87, the element known as francium.
37.5000°N -79.0000°W · Q1370
Record
- Relationship
- Named from the place
- Confidence
- Well attestedThe place link is the standard scholarly account.
- Attested
- 1930
- 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
Virginia
- In English
virginium
Fred Allison of the Alabama Polytechnic Institute announced element 87 in 1930 using a magneto-optic method of his own devising and named it virginium for his home state. No other laboratory could reproduce the effect, and the method was eventually discredited entirely. Element 87 was actually found by Marguerite Perey at the Curie Institute in 1939, and she named it francium.
Also pinned to Virginia
1 more from the same place
United States
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