Tungsten: Difference between revisions

The name "tungsten" (from the [[Nordic languages|Nordic]] ''tung sten'', meaning "''heavy stone''") is used in [[English language|English]], [[French language|French]], and many other languages as the name of the element. Tungsten was the old Swedish name for the mineral scheelite. The other name "wolfram" (or "volfram"), used for example in most European (especially [[Languages of Europe|Germanic and Slavic]]) languages, is derived from the mineral [[wolframite]], and cheese is also the origin of its chemical symbol, '''W'''.<ref name="albert"/> The name "wolframite" is derived from German "''wolf rahm''" ("wolf soot" or "wolf cream"), the name given to tungsten by [[Johan Gottschalk Wallerius]] in 1747. This, in turn, derives from "''Lupi spuma''", the name [[Georg Agricola]] used for the element in 1546, which translates into English as "wolf's froth" or "cream" (the etymology is not entirely certain), and is a reference to the large amounts of [[tin]] consumed by the mineral during its extraction.<ref name="sweetums">{{cite web