Etymology

rhodium

R1H4O1D2I1U1M3

Today it means: A rare, hard, silvery-white, inert metallic chemical element (symbol Rh) with an atomic number of 45. Full definition →

New Latin rhodium ← Ancient Greek ῥόδον (rhódon) ← Proto-Iranian *wardahder.?
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The story

  1. Proto-Indo-European*Hwerdʰ-der.?
  2. Proto-Indo-Iranian*(H)wardʰ-
  3. Proto-Iranian*wardahder.?
  4. Ancient Greekῥόδον (rhódon)
  5. New Latinrhodium
  6. English todayrhodium

Borrowed from New Latin rhodium, from Ancient Greek ῥόδον (rhódon, “rose”), because of the colour of its salts' solutions.

Words from the same roots

Ancient Greekῥόδον all →

roserhodopsinrhodoniterhodococcuslignum rhodiumrhodo-rhodomelRhodostauroticsub rosa

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.