Etymology

californium

C3A1L1I1F4O1R1N1I1U1M3

Today it means: A strongly radioactive and highly fissile transuranic chemical element (symbol Cf) with an atomic number of 98. Full definition →

English California ← Spanish California ← French calife
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The story

  1. Proto-Semitic*ḫalap-
  2. Arabicخَلَفَ (ḵalafa)
  3. Arabicخَلِيفَة (ḵalīfa)
  4. Medieval Latincalīpha
  5. Old Frenchcaliphe
  6. Middle Frenchcalife
  7. Frenchcalife
  8. Spanishcalifa
  9. SpanishCalifornia
  10. EnglishCalifornia
  11. English todaycalifornium

From California + -ium. The element was first synthesized at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (then the University of California Radiation Laboratory), thus named after the university and the U.S. state of California.

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.