cerium
nounEtymology
From Ceres (“a famous asteroid”) + -ium. The element was discovered and named in 1803. It was named after the asteroid, which had been discovered recently (1801) and had been named after Ceres, the Roman goddess of agriculture. This was during an era when asteroids were culturally exciting things that humans were just beginning to understand properly in astronomical terms, and the era also featured a fascination with neoclassical themes and thus naming things after icons of ancient Greek and Roman mythology and literature.
Definitions
A chemical element (symbol Ce) with an atomic number of 58, a very soft, ductile,…
A chemical element (symbol Ce) with an atomic number of 58, a very soft, ductile, silvery-white metal that tarnishes when exposed to air.
The neighborhood
Vish — recursive loop
No curated loop yet for cerium. Loops are being traced one word at a time while the ingestion pipeline matures.
sense glosses and etymology drawn from English Wiktionary · source · CC-BY-SA