yuánzì Chinese characters of the chemical elements
钾

Potassium K · 19

jiǎ

solid metal · period 4, group 1 · s-block

Anatomy

钅 radical 金 jīn
metal → solid metal
+ 甲 phonetic
from kalium =
钾 jiǎ

Transliteration. The phonetic half approximates the international name. Potassium (from Kalium, used to be ka; likely /g/ → /j/ palatalization in Chinese)

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 钾, traditional 鉀.

1850187519001925195019752000antiquitytoday
灰精
1868 · 格物入門 · Géwù Rùmén (1868) — W. A. P. Martin (丁韙良), Tongwen College
𨦗 金 + 卜
1870 · 化學初階 · Huàxué Chūjiē (1870) — John G. Kerr (嘉約翰) & Hé Liǎorán (何瞭然)
卜對斯恩
1871 · 金石識別 · Jīnshí Shíbié (1871) — D. J. MacGowan (瑪高溫) & Huà Héngfāng (華蘅芳)
鉀 jiǎ
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 灰精 格物入門 Géwù Rùmén, W. A. P. Martin (丁韙良), Tongwen College
  2. 1870 𨦗(金 + 卜) 化學初階 Huàxué Chūjiē, John G. Kerr (嘉約翰) & Hé Liǎorán (何瞭然)
  3. 1871 卜對斯恩 金石識別 Jīnshí Shíbié, D. J. MacGowan (瑪高溫) & Huà Héngfāng (華蘅芳)
  4. 1871 鉀 化學鑑原 Huàxué Jiànyuán, Xú Shòu (徐壽) & John Fryer (傅蘭雅), Jiangnan Arsenal
  5. 1905 鉀 jiǎ 化學新教科書 Huàxué Xīn Jiàokēshū, Dù Yàquán (杜亞泉), Commercial Press

Homophones

Same syllable, different tone: 镓 jiā Gallium.

Elsewhere

Japanese カリウム Korean 칼륨 Vietnamese kali

Western name from Neo-Latin via Dutch and English potassa; potasch via potash, “pot-ash”. Compare all

Unicode

U+94BE in CJK Unified Ideographs