boron

Etymology

It was coined by Humphry Davy in 1812,^[2][3] as a blend from English borax + carbon: the element was obtained from borax and resembles carbon in some of its properties.^{[4][5][6][7][8][9]} The OED takes the first part from boracic,^[2] and Etymonline calls the ending abstracted unetymologically from carbon.^[10] Davy, who had isolated the element from boracic acid in 1807, first named it “boracium” in 1809, expecting it to be a metal;^[2][8][3] in 1812 he wrote that it was "more analogous to carbon than to any other substance" and proposed boron "as a more unexceptionable name".^[3] He also knew the French name bore, given by Gay-Lussac and Thénard in 1808, but rejected it for its sound.^[2][8] The mineral name goes back through Anglo-Norman and Medieval Latin to Arabic.^[10][4]

Earliest recorded meaning

The chemical element: 1812, in Davy's Elements of Chemical Philosophy.^[2][11] Barnhart dates the word to probably before 1812,^[8] and Dictionary.com to 1805–15.^[9]

Semantic evolution

The 1989 edition of the OED described the element as a non-metallic solid not fusible at any known temperature,^[12] and added examples from nuclear physics from 1938;^[12] Collins notes the use of the isotope boron-10 in the control rods of nuclear reactors.^[5]

Timeline

• 1812 – the chemical element, named by Davy.^[2][11][10]
• 1938 – in nuclear physics.^[12]

Meanings

Noun

1. A hard metalloid chemical element, atomic number 5 and symbol B, found as a dark brown powder or black crystals and in nature only in compounds such as borax; it is used in hardening steel and in nuclear reactor control rods.^{[5][11][2][13]}

Word family

• boronic
• boron carbide
• boron hydride
• boron nitride
• boron oxide

Related words

• bor-
• borane
• borate
• borax
• boric
• boride
• boro-
• boracic
• carbon

References

1. ^ Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ a b c Wilton, Dave, Wordorigins.org, wordorigins.org, p. "Boron", 24 March 2023
4. ^ a b The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
5. ^ a b c Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins
6. ^ Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
7. ^ Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
8. ^ a b c d Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
9. ^ a b Dictionary.com Unabridged (2016), based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, New York: Random House
10. ^ a b c Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
11. ^ a b c Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
12. ^ a b c Simpson, J. A.; Weiner, E. S. C., eds. (1989), The Oxford English Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press
13. ^ The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (1992), 3rd ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin