Etymology

selenium

S1E1L1E1N1I1U1M3

Today it means: A nonmetallic chemical element (symbol Se) with an atomic number of 34, used mainly in glassmaking and pigments and as a semiconductor. Full definition →

French sélénium ← Ancient Greek σελήνη
Ask AI about its historyChatGPTClaudePerplexityGoogle AIGrok

The story

  1. Ancient Greek · derived fromσελήνη“moon”
  2. French · borrowed fromsélénium
  3. English todayselenium

From French sélénium, the name coined by Swedish chemist Jöns Jacob Berzelius in 1818 from Ancient Greek σελήνη (selḗnē, “moon”) in reference to original confusion with the similar element tellurium.

Words from the same roots

Ancient Greekσελήνη all →

Seleneseleniteselen-selenelionseleno-selenophobia

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.