Back in 2016 while working on blog posts about the woodworkers depicted in misericords I encountered a devilish creature holding a scroll of paper. At the
That’s what you think. He thrives on British English, so every time MS Word autocorrects colour to color or aluminium to aluminum, he is further sustained.
The last time I saw a TIL about this sort of thing though it turned out that “Aluminum” was the original but some academics thought “Aluminium” sounded fancier. My understanding is that it relates to the oxide names, which in the case of aluminum is alumina, after which the -a is swapped for the -um, similar to how magnesium oxide is magnesia. But I’m too lazy to fact check.
Also Molybdenum exists too, so it’s not like Aluminum would be the one exception that is just -um and not -ium.
That’s what you think. He thrives on British English, so every time MS Word autocorrects colour to color or aluminium to aluminum, he is further sustained.
why did they stop at “aluminum”? why don’t they have “magnesum”, “barum”, or “radum”?
why don’t nfl games take place in a “stadum”? why is the size between small and large not a “medum”?
either their table salt ahould contain sodum or their treatment of aluminium is so dumb.
I guess ask the Romans about half of those.
The last time I saw a TIL about this sort of thing though it turned out that “Aluminum” was the original but some academics thought “Aluminium” sounded fancier. My understanding is that it relates to the oxide names, which in the case of aluminum is alumina, after which the -a is swapped for the -um, similar to how magnesium oxide is magnesia. But I’m too lazy to fact check.
Also Molybdenum exists too, so it’s not like Aluminum would be the one exception that is just -um and not -ium.