† silicium Obs.
(sɪˈlɪʃ(ɪ)əm)
Also silicum.
[mod.L., f. silic- silex1 + -ium. Named by Sir H. Davy.]
= silicon.
| 1808 Sir H. Davy in Phil. Trans. XCVIII. 353 Had I been so fortunate as..to have procured the metallic substances I was in search of, I should have proposed for them the names of silicium, alumium, zirconium, and glucium. 1812 ― Chem. Philos. 364 No compound of silicum and chlorine is known. 1822 J. Imison Sci. & Art II. 91 It is imagined, however, that Silicium forms an alloy with iron. 1861 Sir W. Fairbairn Iron 156 The silicium is first attacked, neither the iron nor carbon being operated upon to any extent while any silicium remains. 1868 Joynson Metals 57 A portion of the carbon, and almost the whole of the silicum, is removed from it. 1871 Tyndall Fragm. Sci. (1879) I. i. 9 The flints within the chalk we know to be a compound of oxygen and silicium, called silica. |