“An etymologic devotion
Of abbreviational notion;
‘Hg’ as the symbol
For metal most nimble:
Quicksilvery liquid in motion.”
The 5 April 2025 Bluesky limerick was the first to focus on vocabulary, this spring; this type of theme ultimately would become a major focus of the second half of the month. In this particular case, the limerick celebrated one of the more unusual symbols on the periodic table of the elements (PTE), that of mercury (Hg).
“An etymologic devotion / Of abbreviational notion…”
The first two lines acknowledged the goal: celebrating the story behind a symbol from the PTE.
“ ‘Hg’ as the symbol…”
Mercury is the element represented by the chemical symbol Hg, which is short for “hydrargyrum,” which is such an unwieldy word that I’ve spell-checked myself twice in writing this sentence.
“Hydrargyrum” is the Latin name for the element mercury, stemming previously from the Greek “hydrárgyros.” Once we know that, we see more familiar roots: “hydr” comes from “water” and “argyrum” from “silver” (compare the latter to “argentum,” yielding Ag as a similarly non-intuitive abbreviation for silver).
“For metal most nimble: / Quicksilvery liquid in motion.”
As its water-themed etymology suggests, mercury is a liquid at room temperature and atmospheric pressure, setting it apart from the other metals, which are solids under these conditions. Mercury is the “metal most nimble.”
The Roman god Mercury was said to govern a range of areas, operating fleetly on borders between worlds and disciplines: commerce, communication, travel. The planet Mercury took its name from the god Mercury, given its speedy astronomical motion. The element mercury was named via a complex path through alchemical history that would take me well past 280 words. Quicksilver is an evocative nickname for mercury meaning “living silver,” reflecting its fascinatingly kinetic behavior. Another tangent I stumbled upon is that the word “amalgam” means an alloy (mixture of metals) involving mercury, specifically; I had previously seen those two terms as synonyms, erroneously.
I remain confident one could create a fascinating interdisciplinary course by asking students to investigate and decipher chemical jargon, rather than expecting it to be immediately processed and used, as most disciplinary classes require.
Chemphasis 