氯
Chlorine Cl · 17
gas · period 3, group 17 · p-block
Anatomy
Meaning-based. The second half also names a property of the element. Refers to 绿 “green”, Gr. chlōros (green)
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 氯, traditional 氯.
- 1868 緑氣 格物入門 Géwù Rùmén, W. A. P. Martin (丁韙良), Tongwen College
- 1868 鹽氣 yánqì 格物入門 Géwù Rùmén, W. A. P. Martin (丁韙良), Tongwen College “salt gas”, an alternative in the same book
- 1870 緑氣 化學初階 Huàxué Chūjiē, John G. Kerr (嘉約翰) & Hé Liǎorán (何瞭然)
- 1871 緑氣 金石識別 Jīnshí Shíbié, D. J. MacGowan (瑪高溫) & Huà Héngfāng (華蘅芳)
- 1871 緑氣 化學鑑原 Huàxué Jiànyuán, Xú Shòu (徐壽) & John Fryer (傅蘭雅), Jiangnan Arsenal
- 1905 綠 lǜ 化學新教科書 Huàxué Xīn Jiàokēshū, Dù Yàquán (杜亞泉), Commercial Press the Educational Association wrote 气 over 綠
- 1933 氯 lǜ 化學命名原則 Principles of Chemical Nomenclature, Zhèng Zhènwén (鄭貞文), National Institute for Compilation and Translation 气 + 彔 from 綠 “green”
Homophones
Same syllable, different tone: 铝 lǚ Aluminium, 镥 lǔ Lutetium, 𬬻 lú Rutherfordium.
Elsewhere
Japanese 塩素 Korean 염소 Vietnamese chlor
Western name from Greek χλωρός (chlorós), “pale green”. Compare all
Unicode
U+6C2F in CJK Unified Ideographs