tellurium Chem.
(tɛˈl(j)ʊərɪəm)
[mod.L., f. L. tellūs, tellūr-em the earth + -ium, suffix of names of metals. So called by Klaproth, 1798, prob. in contrast to uranium (Gr. οὐρανός heaven), a metal which he had discovered in 1789.
Cf. Klaproth in Crell's Chem. Annalen 1798, pt. 1. 100, ‘welchem ich hiermit den von der alten Muttererde entlehnten Namen Tellurium beylege’.]
One of the rarer elements, a tin-white shining brittle substance, formerly from its outward characters classed among the metals, but in its chemical properties and relations belonging to the same series as sulphur and selenium. It occurs native in rhombohedral crystals, isomorphous with those of antimony, arsenic, and bismuth. Symbol Te; atomic weight 128.
| 1800 tr. Lagrange's Chem. I. 447 With sulphur this metal forms a grey sulphuret of tellurium, of a radiated structure. 1801 Hatchett in Phil. Trans. XCII. 63 Other metals lately discovered, such as uranium, titanium, and tellurium. 1816 P. Cleaveland Min. 565 Native Tellurium is never perfectly pure. It always contains a greater or less quantity of gold, and sometimes embraces iron, silver, lead, copper, and sulphur. 1862 Miller Elem. Chem. (ed. 2) III. 52. 1866 Roscoe Elem. Chem. xiv. 124 Oxygen, sulphur, selenium, and tellurium form a natural group of elements, each uniting with two atoms of hydrogen to form a series of bodies possessing analogous properties. 1881 Lubbock in Nature 1 Sept. 409/2 In Aldebaran..we may infer the presence of hydrogen, sodium, magnesium, iron, calcium, tellurium, antimony, bismuth, and mercury; some of which are not yet known to occur in the sun. |
b. With qualifying words, applied to minerals or ores containing a preponderance of tellurium, as bismuthic tellurium; black tellurium, foliated tellurium, synonyms of nagyagite; graphic tellurium, yellow tellurium or white tellurium, synonyms of sylvanite. (Dana Min. 1864.)
| 1849 D. Campbell Inorg. Chem. 304 The [ore] named bismuthic tellurium is that from which it is most easily obtained. 1864 [see c.]. |
c. attrib. and Comb. (a) attrib. = ‘of tellurium’, in names of chemical compounds, as tellurium bromide, tellurium chloride, tellurium dioxide, tellurium salts, tellurium nitrate, tellurium sulphate, etc.; in other uses, as tellurium acids, tellurium alloys, tellurium minerals, tellurium ores; (b) in obj. relation, as tellurium-bearing adj.; (c) tellurium glance Min., nagyagite, or black telluride of lead.
| 1834 Prout Chem., etc. i. ix. §3 (1855) 113 Sulphur acids, selenium acids, and tellurium acids. 1853 Ure Dict. Arts II. 200 They are celebrated for their tellurium ore. 1864 Dana (Webster), Tellurium glance, a blackish or lead-gray sectile mineral, of a splendent luster, consisting chiefly of tellurium, sulphur, lead, and gold;—called also black tellurium. 1866 Roscoe Elem. Chem. xiv. 124 When heated in the air it [tellurium] burns with a bluish-green flame, forming white fumes of tellurium dioxide. 1874 Raymond Statist. Mines & Mining 298 The belt of tellurium-bearing veins is found to extend from the Gray Eagle lode.., in a southerly direction. 1877 Ibid. 304 In all, the characteristic tellurium minerals have been found. 1877 Watts Fownes' Chem. (ed. 12) I. 227 Tellurium salts—sulphate, nitrate, oxalate, chloride. Ibid. 228 Tellurium sulphides..chlorides. |