氧
Oxygen O · 8
gas · period 2, group 16 · p-block
Anatomy
Meaning-based. The second half also names a property of the element. Refers to 养 “nourishing”, the nourishing element for life and combustion
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 氧, traditional 氧.
- 1849 養氣 yǎngqì 天文略論 Tiānwén Lüèlùn, Benjamin Hobson (合信) “nourishing gas”
- 1855 生氣 shēngqì 博物新編 Bówù Xīnbiān, Benjamin Hobson (合信) “life gas”, also used for air
- 1868 養氣 格物入門 Géwù Rùmén, W. A. P. Martin (丁韙良), Tongwen College
- 1870 養氣 化學初階 Huàxué Chūjiē, John G. Kerr (嘉約翰) & Hé Liǎorán (何瞭然)
- 1871 養氣 金石識別 Jīnshí Shíbié, D. J. MacGowan (瑪高溫) & Huà Héngfāng (華蘅芳)
- 1871 養氣 化學鑑原 Huàxué Jiànyuán, Xú Shòu (徐壽) & John Fryer (傅蘭雅), Jiangnan Arsenal
- 1905 養 yǎng 化學新教科書 Huàxué Xīn Jiàokēshū, Dù Yàquán (杜亞泉), Commercial Press the Educational Association wrote 气 over 養
- 1920 氱 yǎng 曾提議 Proposed, not adopted, Various interim form with the full 養 under 气
- 1933 氧 yǎng 化學命名原則 Principles of Chemical Nomenclature, Zhèng Zhènwén (鄭貞文), National Institute for Compilation and Translation 气 + 羊 from 養
Homophones
No other element shares this syllable.
Elsewhere
Japanese 酸素 Korean 산소 Vietnamese oxy
Western name from Greek via French ὀξύ γείνομαι (oxy geinomai)/oxygène, “to bring forth acid”. Compare all
Unicode
U+6C27 in CJK Unified Ideographs