Etymology

erbium

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Today it means: A chemical element (symbol Er) with atomic number 68: a silvery-white metal, in nature always found in combination with other elements. Full definition →

New Latin erbium ← Swedish Ytterby ← Old Swedish bȳr
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The story

  1. Proto-Indo-European*úd
  2. Proto-Germanic*ūt
  3. Old Norseút
  4. Old Norseýtri
  5. Swedishyttre
  6. Swedishytter-
  7. Proto-Indo-European*bʰuH-
  8. Proto-Germanic*būaną
  9. Old Norsebúa
  10. Old Norsebýr
  11. Old Swedishbȳr
  12. Swedishby
  13. SwedishYtterby
  14. New Latinerbium
  15. English todayerbium

Borrowed from New Latin erbium; itself from Swedish Ytterby (the name of the town where the element was discovered) + -ium. Coined by Swedish chemist and mineralogist Carl Gustaf Mosander in 1843. Doublet of terbium, ytterbium, and yttrium.

Words from the same roots

SwedishYtterby all →

Ytterby

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.