Gadoliniums

Part of speech: noun

Definitions

1. A set of magnetic and chemically reactive elements found in the rare earth metals group
2. The plural form referring to several isotopes or compounds associated with the element used in various advanced applications
3. Multiple forms or instances of a silvery-white metallic element with significant importance in electronics and medical imaging

Etymology: "Gadoliniums" is simply the plural of "gadolinium", the name of a single chemical element, so the real story belongs to that base word. It was named after Johan Gadolin, a chemist of Swedish-speaking Finland, who studied a dense black mineral from a quarry near the village of Ytterby in Sweden. The mineral was later named gadolinite in his honour, and the element took its name from the mineral. The "-ium" ending is the standard suffix chemists attached to newly isolated metals, borrowed from the Latin-style naming pattern of elements such as "potassium" and "sodium". In this case the suffix was added to Gadolin's surname to produce a name that sounds like a metal. Because "gadolinium" is a countable name for a single element, the plural "gadoliniums" is used mainly when referring to separate samples, compounds or isotopes of the metal.