Les noms des éléments nous racontent leur histoire

Abstract

As soon as Lavoisier had established the very notion of chemical element in 1789, the discoveries of the more than one hundred elements known today, took place up to those of the superheavy elements (SHE) in recent years. This article presents the etymology and history of names which were given to twenty elements or so, among the more recognized. Concurrently, the article evokes the main steps of the building of the Periodic Table: from the initial idea of Chancourtois in 1862, to the fundamental and determining publication of Mendeleev in 1869 and the complement due to William Ramsay at the end of 19th century.

Keywords

• Étymologie
• Éléments chimiques
• Tableau périodique