The story
- Ancient Greek · derived fromκενός“vain”
- English todayxenotime
From Ancient Greek κενός (kenós, “vain”), τιμή (timḗ, “honour”), because the yttrium in the mineral was originally thought to be a new element.
Words from the same roots
Ancient Greekκενός all →
cenotaphceno-cenosilicaphobiakenophobiakenopsiakenotron
Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.