Chemical Element: samarium

(Modern Latin: named for a Scandinavian mineral samarskite; rare earth)

Chemical-Element Information

Symbol: Sm
Atomic 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.