yuánzì Chinese characters of the chemical elements
硫

Sulphur S · 16

liú

solid non-metal · period 3, group 16 · p-block

Anatomy

石 radical 石 shí
stone → solid non-metal
+ 㐬 phonetic =
硫 liú

Ancient name. Known in China long before modern chemistry; the old character was kept. Known since ancient times as 硫磺

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 硫, traditional 硫.

1850187519001925195019752000antiquitytoday
硫磺 liúhuáng
antiquity · 古名 · Pre-modern usage — Classical texts (Shuōwén Jiězì, Běncǎo Gāngmù) brimstone1868 · 格物入門 · Géwù Rùmén (1868) — W. A. P. Martin (丁韙良), Tongwen College1870 · 化學初階 · Huàxué Chūjiē (1870) — John G. Kerr (嘉約翰) & Hé Liǎorán (何瞭然)1871 · 金石識別 · Jīnshí Shíbié (1871) — D. J. MacGowan (瑪高溫) & Huà Héngfāng (華蘅芳)
硫 liú
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. antiquity 硫磺 liúhuáng 古名 Pre-modern usage, Classical texts (Shuōwén Jiězì, Běncǎo Gāngmù) brimstone
  2. 1868 硫磺 格物入門 Géwù Rùmén, W. A. P. Martin (丁韙良), Tongwen College
  3. 1870 硫磺 化學初階 Huàxué Chūjiē, John G. Kerr (嘉約翰) & Hé Liǎorán (何瞭然)
  4. 1871 硫 化學鑑原 Huàxué Jiànyuán, Xú Shòu (徐壽) & John Fryer (傅蘭雅), Jiangnan Arsenal
  5. 1871 硫磺 金石識別 Jīnshí Shíbié, D. J. MacGowan (瑪高溫) & Huà Héngfāng (華蘅芳)
  6. 1905 硫 liú 化學新教科書 Huàxué Xīn Jiàokēshū, Dù Yàquán (杜亞泉), Commercial Press

Homophones

No other element shares this syllable.

Elsewhere

Japanese 硫黄 Korean 황 Vietnamese lưu huỳnh

Western name from Latin; ; Proto-Indo-European (PIE) Old Latin sulpur; (later sulphur, sulfur); ; Proto-Indo-European *swépl̥; (genitive *sulplós),; nominal derivative of *swelp., “to burn”. Compare all

Unicode

U+786B in CJK Unified Ideographs