Ceric

Part of speech: adjective, noun

Definitions

1. Relating to or containing cerium in its quadrivalent form, as in ceric oxide or ceric sulfate
2. Designating a compound of cerium with an oxidation state of plus four, commonly used in analytical chemistry
3. Pertaining to cerium when it exhibits a +4 oxidation state in chemical compounds and reactions

Etymology: Cerium, the metal, was named in 1803 by the Swedish chemists Jöns Jacob Berzelius and Wilhelm Hisinger, who took the name from Ceres, the dwarf planet discovered only two years earlier. Ceres was in turn named for the Roman goddess of grain and agriculture. Martin Heinrich Klaproth, working in Berlin, reached the same element at about the same time. This adjective is built from that element's name plus the suffix "-ic". In chemistry, "-ic" marks the higher of two oxidation states of an element, while "-ous" marks the lower. So "ceric" describes cerium in its +4 state, as in ceric ammonium nitrate, a common oxidizing agent. The same pattern appears in "ferric" and "ferrous" for iron, and "stannic" and "stannous" for tin, and the suffix comes from Latin "-icus".