fluor

Forms

fluor m (uncountable)^[1] Earlier Middle French flueur, dated 1534 by the Grand Robert and the Petit Robert, 1553 by the GLLF and 1554 by the DHLF.^[2][3][4][5]

Etymology

It is borrowed from Latin fluor (“a flowing”),^[6][5][7][8] from Latin fluō (“to flow”).^[5][9] Agricola used the Latin word in 1546 for minerals that looked as if they had formed by rocks flowing together; some of them contain a compound of the element, which was therefore named after them, and the compound fluorine.^[6] The same Latin word, used for menstrual flow, had earlier given Old French flors (“menses”).^[6][5]

Earliest recorded meaning

Bloch and Wartburg date it to 1687 as a term of the old chemistry for acids that always stay liquid;^[7] the TLFi's first record is Savary des Bruslons's Dictionnaire de commerce of 1723.^[6]

Semantic evolution

From acids that stay fluid, the word passed to minerals that melt easily and serve as a flux, as in spath fluor “fluorspar” and alcali fluor “liquid volatile alkali”.^[7][6][4] In 1823 it was taken up as the name of a chemical element, whose existence Ampère had pointed out in 1812 and which Moissan isolated only in 1886.^[5][6] It is the first element of the halogens, a toxic greenish-yellow gas.^[5][3]

Timeline

• 1723 – Savary des Bruslons records the word.^[6]
• 1823 – First used as the name of the chemical element.^[6][5][3]
• 1833 – The derivative fluorine “calcium fluoride” appears.^[5]
• 1838 – Fluoré and fluorhydrique are recorded.^[5][6]
• 1886 – Moissan isolates the element.^[5]

Meanings

Noun

1. Fluorine, the chemical element of atomic number 9, a halogen: un sel enrichi au fluor.^[3][6]

Adjective

1. (obsolete) Liquid, or fusible; still in spath fluor, a synonym of fluorine.^[6][3][9]

Word family

• fluoré
• fluorure
• fluorhydrique
• fluorine

Related words

• fluer
• fleuve
• fluorescence
• Latin fluor

References

1. ^ a b Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ Rey, Alain, ed. (2005), Le Grand Robert de la langue française, electronic version, Paris: Le Robert
3. ^ a b c d e Rey-Debove, Josette; Rey, Alain, eds. (2007), Le Petit Robert de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert
4. ^ a b Guilbert, Louis; Lagane, René; Niobey, Georges, eds. (1971–1978; 1989), Grand Larousse de la langue française, Paris: Larousse
5. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Rey, Alain, ed. (1992), Dictionnaire historique de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert
6. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k Trésor de la langue française informatisé (2004), ATILF – CNRS & Université de Lorraine, atilf.fr/tlfi; electronic version of Imbs, Paul; Quemada, Bernard, eds. (1971–1994), Trésor de la langue française, Paris: CNRS / Gallimard
7. ^ a b c Bloch, Oscar; Wartburg, Walther von (1989), Dictionnaire étymologique de la langue française, 8th ed., Paris: Presses universitaires de France
8. ^ Wartburg, Walther von, et al. (1922–2002), Französisches Etymologisches Wörterbuch, 25 vols., Bonn / Leipzig / Basel: Klopp / Teubner / Zbinden, p. 3, 644a
9. ^ a b Littré, Émile (1873–1877), Dictionnaire de la langue française, 4 vols. and supplement, Paris: Hachette