yuánzì Chinese characters of the chemical elements
硒

Selenium Se · 34

xī

solid non-metal · period 4, group 16 · p-block

Anatomy

石 radical 石 shí
stone → solid non-metal
+ 西 phonetic
from selenium =
硒 xī

Transliteration. The phonetic half approximates the international name. Selenium

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 硒, traditional 硒.

1850187519001925195019752000antiquitytoday
硒 xī
1868 · 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 · 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
西里尼恩
1871 · 金石識別 · Jīnshí Shíbié (1871) — D. J. MacGowan (瑪高溫) & Huà Héngfāng (華蘅芳)
  1. 1868 硒 格物入門 Géwù Rùmén, W. A. P. Martin (丁韙良), Tongwen College
  2. 1870 硒 化學初階 Huàxué Chūjiē, John G. Kerr (嘉約翰) & Hé Liǎorán (何瞭然)
  3. 1871 硒 化學鑑原 Huàxué Jiànyuán, Xú Shòu (徐壽) & John Fryer (傅蘭雅), Jiangnan Arsenal
  4. 1871 西里尼恩 金石識別 Jīnshí Shíbié, D. J. MacGowan (瑪高溫) & Huà Héngfāng (華蘅芳)
  5. 1905 硒 xī 化學新教科書 Huàxué Xīn Jiàokēshū, Dù Yàquán (杜亞泉), Commercial Press

Homophones

Sounds exactly like 锡 Tin. Only the written radical tells them apart.

Same syllable, different tone: 𬭳 xǐ Seaborgium.

Elsewhere

Japanese セレン Korean 셀레늄 Vietnamese selen

Western name from Greek σελήνη (selene), “moon”. Compare all

Unicode

U+7852 in CJK Unified Ideographs