yuánzì Chinese characters of the chemical elements
铌

Niobium Nb · 41

ní

solid metal · period 5, group 5 · d-block

Anatomy

钅 radical 金 jīn
metal → solid metal
+ 尼 phonetic
from niobium =
铌 ní

Transliteration. The phonetic half approximates the international name. Niobium

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 铌, traditional 鈮.

1850187519001925195019752000antiquitytoday
鈮 ní
1905 · 化學新教科書 · Huàxué Xīn Jiàokēshū (1905) — Dù Yàquán (杜亞泉), Commercial Press1945 · 化學命名原則（修訂） · Principles of Chemical Nomenclature, revised (1945) — Ministry of Education, Republic of China niobium replaced columbium
鎶 gē
1915 · 曾提議 · Proposed, not adopted — Various an early 20th-century character for columbium, reused for copernicium in 2010
鈳 kē
1933 · 化學命名原則 · Principles of Chemical Nomenclature (1933) — Zhèng Zhènwén (鄭貞文), National Institute for Compilation and Translation for columbium, the name used in America until 1949
  1. 1905 鈮 ní 化學新教科書 Huàxué Xīn Jiàokēshū, Dù Yàquán (杜亞泉), Commercial Press
  2. 1915 鎶 gē 曾提議 Proposed, not adopted, Various an early 20th-century character for columbium, reused for copernicium in 2010
  3. 1933 鈳 kē 化學命名原則 Principles of Chemical Nomenclature, Zhèng Zhènwén (鄭貞文), National Institute for Compilation and Translation for columbium, the name used in America until 1949
  4. 1945 鈮 ní 化學命名原則（修訂） Principles of Chemical Nomenclature, revised, Ministry of Education, Republic of China niobium replaced columbium

Homophones

Same syllable, different tone: 鿭 nǐ Nihonium.

Elsewhere

Japanese ニオブ Korean 나이오븀 Vietnamese niobi

Western name from Greek Νιόβη (Niobe), “snowy”. Compare all

Unicode

U+94CC in CJK Unified Ideographs