Monday, October 01, 2018

[pnwqelcn] It's aluminium, tennessium, and oganessium in Britain

In Britain, all new chemical elements must end in -ium, which is why the British overrode the (British!) chemist's (second) proposed name for element 13, aluminum (which had followed the pattern of platinum).  (In contrast, Noah Webster was more respectful to Sir Humphry Davy when Webster published his American dictionary, which lead to the adoption of Davy's name for the element in America.)  Therefore, we also expect the British to override the names for elements 117 and 118, tennessine (which follows the pattern of astatine) and oganesson (which follows the pattern of radon).  Or possibly they will concede that their insistence that element names end with -ium is stupid.  Or possibly they will concede they are no longer a country whose opinion on element names is relevant.

(Also Britain's minor outlying islands like Australia, and Australia's minor outlying islands like New Zealand.)

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