Chemical Element: samarium
(Modern Latin: named for a Scandinavian mineral samarskite; rare earth)
Chemical-Element Information
Symbol: SmAtomic number: 62
Year discovered: 1879
Discovered by: Paul-Émile Lecoq de Boisbaudran (1838-1912), a French chemist.
- Samarium was discovered spectroscopically by its sharp absorption lines, in 1853, by Jean Charles Galissard de Marignac in an “earth” called didymia.
- The element was isolated, in 1879, by Lecoq de Boisbaudran from the mineral samarskite, named in honor of a Russian mine official, Colonel Samarski, and which therefore gave samarium its name.
Name in other languages:
French: samarium
German: Samarium
Italian: samario
Spanish: samario
Information about other elements may be seen at this Chemical Elements List.
A special unit about words that include chemo-, chem- may be seen here.