Caesium Cs · 55
solid metal · period 6, group 1 · s-block
Anatomy
Meaning-based. The second half also names a property of the element. 色 means “color”, while this element is named after its spectral color
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 铯, traditional 銫.
- 1905 鏭 xī 化學新教科書 Huàxué Xīn Jiàokēshū, Dù Yàquán (杜亞泉), Commercial Press
- 1933 銫 sè 化學命名原則 Principles of Chemical Nomenclature, Zhèng Zhènwén (鄭貞文), National Institute for Compilation and Translation 色 “colour”, after the spectral lines it was named for
Homophones
No other element shares this syllable.
Elsewhere
Japanese セシウム Korean 세슘 Vietnamese xêsi
Western name from Latin caesius, “blue-grey" or "sky blue”. Compare all
Unicode
U+94EF in CJK Unified Ideographs