gallium

borrowed from New Latin, from Gallia “Gaul, France” (going back to Latin) + -ium -ium ◆The element was named by the first person to isolate it, the French chemist Paul-Émile Lecoq de Boisbaudran (1838-1912), reported in “Caractères chimiques et spectroscopiques d'un nouveau métal, le Gallium, découvert dns une blende de la mine de Pierrefitte, vallée d'Argelès,” Comptes rendus hebdomadaires des séances de l'Académie des Sciences, tome 81 (juillet-décembre 1875), pp. 493-95. In a later publication, Lecoq de Boisbaudran explained the origin of the name: “ … j'ai aperçu les premiers indices de l'existence d'un nouvel élément, que j'ai nommé «gallium» en l'honneur de la France (Gallia)” (“ … I perceived the first signs of the existence of a new element, which I named “gallium” in honor of France (Gallia)”) (“Sur un nouveau métal, le gallium,” Annales de chimie et de physique, 5. série, tome 10 [1877], p. 103). The later hypothesis that gallium was formed from Latin gallus “cock,” as a translation of the chemist's surname “Lecoq,” is without apparent foundation. (Though the evidence is clear, there is on the other hand no indication that Lecoq de Boisbaudran ever explicitly denied the association.)

First Known Use: 1875