Etymology

tungsten

T1U1N1G2S1T1E1N1

Today it means: A rare metallic chemical element (symbol W, from Latin wolframium) with an atomic number of 74. Full definition →

Swedish tungsten ← Old Swedish sten ← Old Norse steinn
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The story

  1. Proto-Indo-European*ten-
  2. Proto-Indo-European*téngʰ-u-s ~ *tn̥gʰ-éw-s
  3. Proto-Germanic*þunguz
  4. Old Norseþungr
  5. Swedishtung
  6. Proto-Indo-European*steh₂-
  7. Proto-Indo-European*steyh₂-
  8. Proto-Indo-European*stóyh₂nos
  9. Proto-Germanic*stainaz
  10. Proto-Norseᛊᛏᚨᛁᚾᚨᛉ (stainaʀ)
  11. Old Norsesteinn
  12. Old Swedishsten
  13. Swedishsten
  14. Swedishtungsten
  15. English todaytungsten

Borrowed from Swedish tungsten (“scheelite”), from tung (“heavy”) + sten (“stone”).

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.