yuánzì Chinese characters of the chemical elements
钙

Calcium Ca · 20

gài

solid metal · period 4, group 2 · s-block

Anatomy

钅 radical 金 jīn
metal → solid metal
+ 丐 phonetic
from calcium =
钙 gài

Transliteration. The phonetic half approximates the international name. Calcium

History of the character

Every form found in the sources, from the first missionary chemistry books of the 1850s to the current standards. Hover a dot for the source. Simplified 钙, traditional 鈣.

1850187519001925195019752000antiquitytoday
丐而西黑 gài'érxīhēi
1868 · 格物入門 · Géwù Rùmén (1868) — W. A. P. Martin (丁韙良), Tongwen College full transliteration also used
石精
1868 · 格物入門 · Géwù Rùmén (1868) — W. A. P. Martin (丁韙良), Tongwen College
鉐
1870 · 化學初階 · Huàxué Chūjiē (1870) — John G. Kerr (嘉約翰) & Hé Liǎorán (何瞭然)
丐而西恩
1871 · 金石識別 · Jīnshí Shíbié (1871) — D. J. MacGowan (瑪高溫) & Huà Héngfāng (華蘅芳)
鈣 gài
1871 · 化學鑑原 · Huàxué Jiànyuán (1871) — Xú Shòu (徐壽) & John Fryer (傅蘭雅), Jiangnan Arsenal1905 · 化學新教科書 · Huàxué Xīn Jiàokēshū (1905) — Dù Yàquán (杜亞泉), Commercial Press
  1. 1868 丐而西黑 gài'érxīhēi 格物入門 Géwù Rùmén, W. A. P. Martin (丁韙良), Tongwen College full transliteration also used
  2. 1868 石精 格物入門 Géwù Rùmén, W. A. P. Martin (丁韙良), Tongwen College
  3. 1870 鉐 化學初階 Huàxué Chūjiē, John G. Kerr (嘉約翰) & Hé Liǎorán (何瞭然)
  4. 1871 丐而西恩 金石識別 Jīnshí Shíbié, D. J. MacGowan (瑪高溫) & Huà Héngfāng (華蘅芳)
  5. 1871 鈣 化學鑑原 Huàxué Jiànyuán, Xú Shòu (徐壽) & John Fryer (傅蘭雅), Jiangnan Arsenal
  6. 1905 鈣 gài 化學新教科書 Huàxué Xīn Jiàokēshū, Dù Yàquán (杜亞泉), Commercial Press

Homophones

No other element shares this syllable.

Elsewhere

Japanese カルシウム Korean 칼슘 Vietnamese calci

Western name from Greek/Latin χάλιξ/calx, “pebble"/"limestone”. Compare all

Unicode

U+9499 in CJK Unified Ideographs