Etymograph

English

gallium

Gallium comes from Latin Gallus ‘Gaul’, and goes back to Proto-Celtic *galnati ‘to be able, can’.

  1. Proto-Celticc. 1300–800 BCE*galnati‘to be able, can’reconstructed
  2. Latinc. 75 BCE–200 CEGallus‘Gaul’
  3. Latin, derivedc. 75 BCE–200 CEGallia
  4. Englishtodaygallium

attested reconstructed ? uncertain or disputed

Earlier history uncertain.

Lineage

  1. Proto-Celticc. 1300–800 BCE*galnati‘to be able, can’reconstructed
  2. Latinc. 75 BCE–200 CEGallus‘Gaul’
  3. Latin, derivedc. 75 BCE–200 CEGallia
  4. Englishtodaygallium

The story

Named by its discoverer Lecoq, after Latin Gallia (‘Gaul’). It was claimed that Lecoq had named the element after himself, since gallus is the Latin translation of the French le coq, but Lecoq denied this in an article of 1877.

Linked words

through Proto-Indo-European *gelH- ‘naked’

gulliver, callow, 5 more

Today it means

noun A chemical element (symbol Ga) with an atomic number of 31; a soft bluish metal.

Language periods are conventional ranges, not dates for this word.

Etymograph / Proto-Celtic *galnati / gallium

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