Name of sodium (Na) in every European country

2 years ago by Flying Squid to c/map_enthusiasts

(I did not make the map, the typo is not my doing.)

infeeeee 105 points 2 years ago

I found a reddit post why sodium and potassium have 2 names:

There was some argument over what to call the elements. They were discovered by Sir Humphrey Davy who called them "sodium" from the Latin "sodanum" for a compound of sodium used as a treatment for headaches, and "potassium" from English "potash" which was the method used to extract potassium salts.

But a German chemist, Ludwig Wilhelm Gilbert, proposed "natronium" from Neo-Latin as a reference to "natron" which is what the Egyptians called sodium carbonate, and "kalium" from the Neo-Latin of the Arabic "al qalyah" which means "ashes".

So in English they were "sodium" and "potassium", but in German they were "Natronium" (now simply "Natrium") and "Kalium".

It just so happened that the guy who invented the modern chemical symbols was Jöns Jacob Berzelius. He was Swiss and spoke German, so he derived the symbols from the German names.

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pimento64 40 points 2 years ago

That's almost as much fun as Davy pointlessly waffling between alumium, aluminum, and aluminium till we once again ended up with people who speak the same language using different terms.

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Successful_Try543 17 points 2 years ago

In German, we also have "Pottasche" as the trivial name of potassium carbonate

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Zwiebel 9 points 2 years ago

Note Asche = ash

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Akasazh 5 points 2 years ago

And pot=pot, so potassium is 'from the ashpot' which was how kalium salts were extracted, by adding water to wood ash, then filtering and evaporating the water off.

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ApathyTree 17 points 2 years ago

Is that why potassium is K on the periodic table?

And now that I think about it, sodium is Na..

Damnit, our educational system has been telling us we are wrong the whole time! Sneaky bullshit!

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infeeeee 12 points 2 years ago

Berzelius was an asshole. Antimony is Antimon* in most languages, even in German, but he chose Sb from Latin stibium

Found one more, with a similar double name, but there he used at least the German name: Tungsten (W) is Wolfram in German

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DontNoodles 8 points 2 years ago

There are also Sn (Stannous) for Tin, Pb (Plumbum) for Lead, Fe (Ferrum) for Iron, Hg (Hydrargyrum) for Mercury, Au (Aurum) for Gold and Ag (Argentum) for Silver.

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ChairmanMeow 3 points 2 years ago

Those are just the Latin names for already known elements. Not quite the same difference imo.

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pmk 11 points 2 years ago

Jöns was swedish, not swiss.

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Test_Tickles 3 points 2 years ago

Switzerland and Sweden aren't the same country? Well God damnit, there goes my dream vacation of visiting the home of Ikea and chocolate.
Wait, now which one of them am I supposed to refer to as Swaziland?

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SaintWacko 31 points 2 years ago

Estonia over there with "Natrium, but longer"

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FlyingSquid 21 points 2 years ago

Meanwhile, they don't have time to say 'sodium' in Poland. They're way too busy.

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A7thStone 17 points 2 years ago

Kneel before sód

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AI_toothbrush 2 points 2 years ago

Funny thing is hungarian also does the same. Á is the long form of a(tho the sound of it does change for some absurd reason i dont know). Tho finnish doesnt do it which is sad because then all the finno-ugric languages in europe would say it naatrium.

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RandomVideos 22 points 2 years ago

Sodium, in Romania, can either be "sodiu" or "natriu"

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lunarul 13 points 2 years ago

But nobody actually calls it "natriu", it's just a thing you hear once in school to help you remember why the symbol is Na and then never use it again.

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Hamartiogonic 17 points 2 years ago

Can we get a map of tungsten (W) next time?

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Zwiebel 12 points 2 years ago

You mean Wolfram (T)?

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Successful_Try543 10 points 2 years ago

Fun fact: Tungsten ist W/Volfram in Norwegian, Danish and Swedish where its English name, tung sten meaning "heavy stone", originates from.

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Valmond 5 points 2 years ago

Just to clarify, Swedish for "heavy stone" is literally "tung sten".

I don't know if it came around for non Scandinavians.

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Manzas 12 points 2 years ago

Well The Lithuanian one is wrong the person who made this couldn't even copy from google translate. it is natris

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magikmw 9 points 2 years ago

There's been wars waged for less.

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tiredofsametab 8 points 2 years ago

If any one is curious about japanese, it's basically natrium ナトリウム (and potassium is kalium カリウム)

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reksas 8 points 2 years ago

why call it sodium if its (Na) anyway?

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Dicska 9 points 2 years ago

Why call it silver when it's Ag anyway?

(we call it nátrium, but there's more to it than the periodic table name)

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Sylvartas 4 points 2 years ago

Why call it gold when it's Au anyway ?

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reksas 3 points 2 years ago

argentum would be cool name for it though, but yeah

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LowtierComputer 1 point 2 years ago

Argentum

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WhiskyTangoFoxtrot 4 points 2 years ago

Sodium sodium sodium sodium sodium sodium sodium sodium Batman!

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IDKWhatUsernametoPutHereLolol 8 points 2 years ago

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Successful_Try543 4 points 2 years ago

Undecium or is it Ununium?

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riplin 6 points 2 years ago

Funny how they write “name of sodium (Na)”. I mean the abbreviation is right there…

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oo1 4 points 2 years ago

I hope Cyprus can at least agree on Cu.

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tiredofsametab 1 point 2 years ago

If not, we call always say " c u later!"

... I'll show myself out

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werefreeatlast 3 points 2 years ago

I like the one that almost looks like "Natriguana"

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moosetwin 3 points 2 years ago

Is that where the word nitre comes from?

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Zer0_F0x 13 points 2 years ago

That's where the (Na) comes from. Anything starting with Nit comes from Nitrogen (N)

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Justas 2 points 2 years ago

Natris, not natrio, get your cases correct.

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FlyingSquid 9 points 2 years ago

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Justas 2 points 2 years ago

It's written in genitive, not in nominative.

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