English
sodium
Sodium comes from Italian soda ‘soda, sodium carbonate’, from Arabic سُوَيْدَاء ‘seepweed’, and ultimately from سَوْدَاء.
- Arabicc. 500–presentسَوْدَاءsawdāʔ
- Arabic, derivedc. 500–presentسُوَيْدَاءsuwaydāʔ‘seepweed’
- Italianc. 1300–presentsoda‘soda, sodium carbonate’
- English1500–presentsame form
- Englishearliest quotation 1960sodium
attested reconstructed ? uncertain or disputed
Lineage
- Arabicc. 500–presentسَوْدَاءsawdāʔ
- Arabic, derivedc. 500–presentسُوَيْدَاءsuwaydāʔ‘seepweed’
- Italianc. 1300–presentsoda‘soda, sodium carbonate’
- English1500–presentsame form
- Englishearliest quotation 1960sodium
Earliest quotation: 1960, G. Freeman Allen, "Condor"—British Railways' fastest freight train: “From Keighley onwards we had obviously returned to civilisation,…”
Formed from soda + -ium
The story
Coined by British chemist Humphry Davy in 1808, from soda + -ium.
Linked words
through Italian soda ‘soda, sodium carbonate’
Today it means
noun The chemical element (symbol Na) with an atomic number of 11 and atomic weight of 22.990. It is a soft, waxy, silvery, reactive alkali metal that is never found unbound in nature.
Language periods are conventional ranges, not dates for this word.
Etymograph / Arabic سَوْدَاء / sodium