Elements Ancient Greek meaning

Stoichiometry. Such a complicated word for such a simple idea. The Greek roots of the word mean measuring elements, which doesn t sound nearly as intimidating. Moreover, the ancient Greeks couldn t tell an ionic bond from an Ionic column, so just how technical and scary could stoichiometry really be Simply stated, stoichiometry is the quantitative relationship between components of chemical substances. In compound formulas and reaction equations, you express stoichiometry by using subscripted numbers and coefficients. 

Atom The word comes originally from the Greek word atomos, meaning uncut or indivisible. The ancient Greek philosophers known as the Epicureans believed that matter was composed on small, hard particles they called atomos. The idea and the word was revived in the 1600s to represent the smallest fundamental particle of matter. Today it means the smallest part of an element that can exist independently and interact chemically. 

In ancient Greek philosophy, water together with earth wind and fire was one of the four classical elements. To these four elements a fifth element was added known as aether or quintessence (meaning also the void). This fifth element was added by Archimedes (287-212 BC). He believed that stars must be made out of aether because they do not change. Water (symbol V) was associated with emotion and intuition. 

ORIGIN OF NAME The element s name comes from the Greek words anti and minos, which mean "not alone," and antimony s symbol (Sb) is derived from the name for its ancient source mineral, stibnium. 

The silver liquid called mercury has been known since ancient times. In fact the symbol for mercury (Hg) comes from its Greek name Hydrargyrum, which means watery silver. Although elements in the liquid state at ambient temperature and pressure are quite rare (Br2 is another example), the liquid nature of mercury is especially confounding. For example, compare the properties of mercury and gold ... 

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