Etymology

aluminium

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Today it means: A light, silvery metal extracted from bauxite, and a chemical element (symbol Al) with an atomic number of 13. Full definition →

Latin alūmen ← Proto-Indo-European *h₂elut-
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The story

  1. Proto-Indo-European*h₂elut-
  2. Latinalūmen
  3. English todayaluminium

First used in 1812 as an alternative form of aluminum which was coined in the same year. From Latin alūmen + -ium. * For information on the origins of the two spellings, see the Wikipedia article.

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.