# NOT the Periodic Table **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [February 2, 2016, 1:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/not-the-periodic-table/744942 "2016-02-02T13:06:59Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![CalMeacham](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/calmeacham/32/35_2.png) [@CalMeacham](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CalMeacham)\ **Post date:** [February 3, 2016, 1:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/not-the-periodic-table/744942/21 "2016-02-03T01:02:32Z")
> [@Melbourne](#): > > A “bromide”, meaning an elixer, a treatment for epilepsy, a mild tranquilizer or sedative, something you get from a druggist/ pharmacy/ soda fountain, named from the element (eg: “bromide of strontium”), but a common / medical term, not from his MIT Chemistry training. I disagree. He also came up with an antonym for “bromide”, which I can’t recall now, but which also had a chemical name. In any event, there are plenty of bromine compounds whose names end in “bromide”. I have no doubt Burgess was making use of his Tech education. ---
**Author:** ![cjepson](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/a9adbd/32.png) [@cjepson](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cjepson)\ **Post date:** [February 3, 2016, 3:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/not-the-periodic-table/744942/22 "2016-02-03T03:05:55Z")
Van der Graaf Generator put out an album called _H to He Who Am the Only One,_ but I guess the connection to the elements is still pretty clear. (But at least “He” has a double meaning.) ---
**Author:** ![rowrrbazzle](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/rowrrbazzle/32/414_2.png) [@rowrrbazzle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/rowrrbazzle)\ **Post date:** [February 3, 2016, 5:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/not-the-periodic-table/744942/23 "2016-02-03T05:39:35Z")
> [@TriPolar](#): > > Palladium is the name of numerous concert halls and theaters. But they were named after the Palladium, the statue of Pallas Athena that Aeneas brought from Troy. [QUOTE=CalMeacham] Bromide – meaning an acerbic axiom. The word was coined by MIT grad turned cartoonist and poet Frank Gelett Burgess (who wrote “The Purple Cow”, among other things). [/QUOTE] I’m seriously confused now. I just took a quick look at Burgess’s essay, “Are you a Bromide”, and the term doesn’t seem to be connected with anything acerbic. From the essay: > [@](#): > > The Bromide conforms to everything sanctioned by the majority, and may be depended upon to be trite, banal and arbitrary. In other words, the Bromide (person) utters bromides. And the OED gives a cite before Burgess’s essay. The first cites: > [@](#): > > 1903 Daily Chron. 9 May 4/5 Literature is resentful at being mistaken for bromide. > 1906 G. Burgess (title) Are you a Bromide? > 1909 W. A. Raleigh Lett. (1926) II. 340 Bromides are dull partly because everyone pretends to understand them. ---
**Author:** ![CalMeacham](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/calmeacham/32/35_2.png) [@CalMeacham](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CalMeacham)\ **Post date:** [February 3, 2016, 12:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/not-the-periodic-table/744942/24 "2016-02-03T12:32:33Z")
> [@rowrrbazzle](#): > > But they were named after the Palladium, the statue of Pallas Athena that Aeneas brought from Troy. > > I’m seriously confused now. I just took a quick look at Burgess’s essay, “Are you a Bromide”, and the term doesn’t seem to be connected with anything acerbic. From the essay:In other words, the Bromide (person) utters bromides. > > And the OED gives a cite before Burgess’s essay. The first cites: I’ll have to look up the 1903 cite, but it doesn’t look, at first glance, as if it’s being used in the same way. Another one is another use of **Xenon** – according to psychic Edgar Cayce, it was the name of the Trojan soldier who let in the Trojan horse. ---
**Author:** ![psychonaut](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/psychonaut/32/4655_2.png) [@psychonaut](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/psychonaut)\ **Post date:** [February 3, 2016, 12:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/not-the-periodic-table/744942/25 "2016-02-03T12:47:13Z")
He’s not exactly a fictional character, but maybe you’d accept notorious net.kook [Archimedes Plutonium](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Archimedes_Plutonium) (born Ludwig Poehlmann). He took his name from his theory that the universe is a giant plutonium atom. ---
**Author:** ![MacLir](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/9e8a1a/32.png) [@MacLir](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MacLir)\ **Post date:** [February 3, 2016, 3:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/not-the-periodic-table/744942/26 "2016-02-03T15:20:31Z")
> [@CalMeacham](#): > > Bromide – meaning an acerbic axiom. The word was coined by MIT grad turned cartoonist and poet Frank Gelett Burgess (who wrote “The Purple Cow”, among other things). His coming up with this term is clearly his MIT Chemistry training coming through. Not exactly. “Bromides” were used as sedatives, and so were associated with dull boring people, and by extension, the dull banal anecdotes they likely told. My Webster’s New Collegiate dates it to 1836. ---
**Author:** ![CalMeacham](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/calmeacham/32/35_2.png) [@CalMeacham](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CalMeacham)\ **Post date:** [February 3, 2016, 4:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/not-the-periodic-table/744942/27 "2016-02-03T16:17:28Z")
> [@MacLir](#): > > Not exactly. > > “Bromides” were used as sedatives, and so were associated with dull boring people, and by extension, the dull banal anecdotes they likely told. > > My Webster’s New Collegiate dates it to 1836. I’ve gone back and looked through Burgess’ piece and other refs. You’re quite right. I was going by a source that said that Burgess was the original source of “bromide” in this sense, but it’s clear from his own book that he made no such claim, and did not invent that use of the word. That’s what I get for trusting someone else’s work. Now I have to go back and check if Burgess really was the originator of “blurb” and “Goop” (which he’s also supposed to have coined) ---
**Author:** ![Dendarii\_Dame](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/bbce88/32.png) [@Dendarii\_Dame](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dendarii_Dame)\ **Post date:** [February 3, 2016, 6:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/not-the-periodic-table/744942/28 "2016-02-03T18:48:46Z")
“Neon” is a character in Vonda McIntyre’s novel **The Entropy Effect**. My brother named his cat Molybdenum. ---
**Author:** ![Thudlow\_Boink](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/thudlow_boink/32/320_2.png) [@Thudlow\_Boink](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Thudlow_Boink)\ **Post date:** [February 3, 2016, 7:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/not-the-periodic-table/744942/29 "2016-02-03T19:10:09Z")
> [@CalMeacham](#): > > But when I read Edgar Rice Burroughs’ Martian stories, it kept wrenching me out of the story to read about the city of _Helium_. Was the city in the book named after the element, or was it named after the same thing the element was named after (i.e. the Sun)? ---
**Author:** ![Irishman](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/b487fb/32.png) [@Irishman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Irishman)\ **Post date:** [February 3, 2016, 8:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/not-the-periodic-table/744942/30 "2016-02-03T20:37:45Z")
> [@Little\_Nemo](#): > > Nirvana had a song titled “Lithium”. The song “Lithium” is named for lithium, the element being used as medicine to treat depression. > [@Chronos](#): > > I don’t know… Actual neon lights are characteristically a very clear, bright red color, so it seems to me that calling something “neon green” is nearly completely unrelated to the element. _Neon_ lights are clear orangish red, but the term “[neon light](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Neon_lighting)” became commonplace, and then people started making the lights with other elements, but people still called them neon lights. The [tube lights](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Neon_sign) are vivid and bright (see pictures), which inspired people applying the term “neon” to colors that were bright and vivid like the various tube lights. So there is a direct connection between the use. **Abner Ravenwood** , as mentioned, most of those are directly connected to the element name. For example “WCW Nitro, Johnny Nitro, Nitro from Marvel Comics (close enough to nitrogen)” : All of these using “Nitro” stand for [nitromethane](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nitromethane), a fuel used in high performance racing vehicles. “Neon” Deon Sanders used the term for it’s “bright color” denotation, which applied to his vivid clothing and hair as well as his vivid personality. I’ve explained the connection of the bright color to the element. Silicon Valerie sounds like a play on the term “Silicon Valley”, which is derived from the element used to make integrated circuit chips, and perhaps Silicone, which is the element used to make a gel material for breast implants. Etc. ---
**Author:** ![CalMeacham](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/calmeacham/32/35_2.png) [@CalMeacham](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CalMeacham)\ **Post date:** [February 3, 2016, 8:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/not-the-periodic-table/744942/31 "2016-02-03T20:42:23Z")
> [@Thudlow\_Boink](#): > > Was the city in the book named after the element, or was it named after the same thing the element was named after (i.e. the Sun)? I don’t know where Burroughs got the name from, but “Helium” isn’t the sun, or the sun god. _Helios_ is the god of the Sun. And there’s no reason for the Martians to name their city “The Sun”\*. I suspect Burroughs just liked the name, which sounded odd and “scientific”. \*It’s not like it’s “The City of the Sun”, or anything like that. ---
**Author:** ![Tim\_R.Mortiss](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tim_r.mortiss/32/142_2.png) [@Tim\_R.Mortiss](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tim_R.Mortiss)\ **Post date:** [February 3, 2016, 8:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/not-the-periodic-table/744942/32 "2016-02-03T20:53:33Z")
Not exactly an element, but I always wondered where the character Quark (on ST: DS9) got his name from. ---
**Author:** ![CalMeacham](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/calmeacham/32/35_2.png) [@CalMeacham](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CalMeacham)\ **Post date:** [February 3, 2016, 9:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/not-the-periodic-table/744942/33 "2016-02-03T21:14:35Z")
> [@Tim\_R.Mortiss](#): > > Not exactly an element, but I always wondered where the character Quark (on ST: DS9) got his name from. I’m sure that’s another example of the same thing the thread’s about – it’s an unusual word for s scientific item ( a constituent of a subatomic particle), used as a name probably because it sounds cool, and has scientific associations. In _This Island Earth_ the cat is named “Neutron”, although they make its scientific pedigree obvious. They botched it, though, by saying “We call him “Neutron” because he’s so positive.” Right. “Jimmy Neuton”, on the other hand, is definitely named that for the “sounds cool/scientific” reason, and not because of any neutron properties (or being positive). It also lets them get additional gag mileage by having the middle name “Isaac” – “James Isaac Neutron,” yells his mother, when angry with him. ---
**Author:** ![thelurkinghorror](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/7c8e57/32.png) [@thelurkinghorror](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/thelurkinghorror)\ **Post date:** [February 3, 2016, 10:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/not-the-periodic-table/744942/34 "2016-02-03T22:53:36Z")
Xenon is also a [non-pinball video game](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Xenon_%28video_game%29). Also the CPU used in the XBOX 360, which is named after the Xenos The US “nickel” coin is absolutely named after the element, even if it’s only 25% nickel. However, during WWII, it contained no nickel (copper, silver, manganese). One letter difference, but there a group of plants called [Galium](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Galium). My WAG is that it’s also named after France. I’m probably stretching things, but the name for tungsten in German and other languages is “wolfram.” Wolfram Alpha is simply named after a guy named Wolfram. I can’t read Argon without thinking of the Argonian race of lizard people in the Elder Scrolls. Antimony makes me think of some Roman guy. Again if you can’t spell, “antinomy” is a unrelated logic term. > [@Irishman](#): > > The song “Lithium” is named for lithium, the element being used as medicine to treat depression. Well for bipolar disorder; it won’t do much to elevate a solely depressed mood. It’s also administered in salt form, such as lithium carbonate or citrate and not straight elemental lithium. ---
**Author:** ![The\_Vorlon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/d07c76/32.png) [@The\_Vorlon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Vorlon)\ **Post date:** [February 3, 2016, 11:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/not-the-periodic-table/744942/35 "2016-02-03T23:22:00Z")
> [@thelurkinghorror](#): > > Well for bipolar disorder; it won’t do much to elevate a solely depressed mood. It’s also administered in salt form, such as lithium carbonate or citrate and not straight elemental lithium. Metallic lithium would be very, er, energetic if ingested. ---
**Author:** ![thelurkinghorror](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/7c8e57/32.png) [@thelurkinghorror](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/thelurkinghorror)\ **Post date:** [February 3, 2016, 11:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/not-the-periodic-table/744942/36 "2016-02-03T23:53:18Z")
> [@The\_Vorlon](#): > > Metallic lithium would be very, er, energetic if ingested. To a non-fan of rock Nirvana sounds like metal, but grunge really has more of a punk pedigree. ---
**Author:** ![NuclearBombPop](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/94ad74/32.png) [@NuclearBombPop](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/NuclearBombPop)\ **Post date:** [February 4, 2016, 4:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/not-the-periodic-table/744942/37 "2016-02-04T04:00:42Z")
There are a surprising number of US cities named for elements, as discussed in [this](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=131683) thread.[slight hijack] It actually has helped me on my quest to collect postmarks from cities with element names to create a “Periodic Table of Postmarks.” Sadly, a lot of these towns are tapped out mining towns (named for their chief industry) that no longer have a post office.[/slight hijack] ---
**Author:** ![the\_diego](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/7bcc69/32.png) [@the\_diego](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/the_diego)\ **Post date:** [February 4, 2016, 4:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/not-the-periodic-table/744942/38 "2016-02-04T04:05:05Z")
Br(eaking) Ba(d) ---
**Author:** ![thelurkinghorror](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/7c8e57/32.png) [@thelurkinghorror](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/thelurkinghorror)\ **Post date:** [February 4, 2016, 4:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/not-the-periodic-table/744942/39 "2016-02-04T04:44:10Z")
> [@NuclearBombPop](#): > > There are a surprising number of US cities named for elements, as discussed in [this](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=131683) thread.[slight hijack] It actually has helped me on my quest to collect postmarks from cities with element names to create a “Periodic Table of Postmarks.” Sadly, a lot of these towns are tapped out mining towns (named for their chief industry) that no longer have a post office.[/slight hijack] Or in the opposite direction, Ytterby, a Swedish mining village that’s apparently so tiny that I can’t even Google a population estimate, has **seven** elements discovered nearby: four named after it (ytterbium, yttrium, terbium, and erbium), and three more that had to be renamed when they ran out of variations of the name (holmium, thulium, and gadolinium). ---
**Author:** ![Der\_Trihs](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/der_trihs/32/233_2.png) [@Der\_Trihs](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Der_Trihs)\ **Post date:** [February 4, 2016, 10:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/not-the-periodic-table/744942/40 "2016-02-04T10:03:10Z")
Marvel’s Squadron Supreme was made pretty explicitly as an expy of DC’s Justice League; the Superman-equivalent Hyperion came from the planet Argon and was vulnerable to “Argonite”. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/not-the-periodic-table/744942.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/not-the-periodic-table/744942.md?page=3)