Re: Where does the term "element" come from?
This word has no provable etymology. We may reasonably impute from the history of its use a basic meaning, as the OED puts it, 'a component unit of a series'. There has been since Roman times the fanciful etymology that in the Phoenician, Greek and Etruscan alphabets the longest run of letters common to all three is the sequence L-M-N; that is, the largest component unit of the alphabetical series is the L-M-N-tum, or 'elementum'. Best wishes to all for the New Year. Walter "Costello, Roger L." wrote: > Hi Folks, > > This is a book element: > > <book>...</book> > > Why "element"? > > Who decided to call it element? > > When was the term first used? > > There is the Periodic Table of elements. Is that where the term comes from? > > In hindsight, is there a better term?
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