Definitions

from The Century Dictionary.

  • noun A termination of many English nouns and adjectives from the Latin and Greek.
  • noun In chem., this suffix occurs especiallyin the names of the larger number of the metallic elements.

Etymologies

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Examples

  • The IBM device explores the avalanche effect in Germanium, a material currently used in production of microprocessor chips.

    WN.com - Business News 2010

  • The IBM device explores the avalanche effect in Germanium, a material currently used in production of microprocessor chips.

    WN.com - Business News 2010

  • Again, years later a European scientific group changed the name to aluminium -- to line up with the "ium" group of metals, calcium, barium, strontium and so forth, but on this continent that change was never recognized.

    Building Frontiers with Aluminum 1951

  • As far as I can tell they pick some scientist from the past or use the location where something was discovered and then attach "ium" to it.

    Something Awful zackparsons@somethingawful.com (Zack "Geist Editor 2010

  • Shortly thereafter, the name aluminum was adopted to conform with the "ium" ending of most elements, and this spelling is now in use elsewhere in the world.

    Murmurs.com 2009

  • This name was then altered to aluminium so that most of the elements would have "ium" ending.

    CreationWiki - Recent changes [en] 2009

  • "Veni Sancte Spiritus, however, the persistence throughout the hymn of the same rhthymic close in" ium "For all the stanzas -- a feature imitated in Dr. Neale's translation (given in the Baltimore Manual of

    The Catholic Encyclopedia, Volume 15: Tournely-Zwirner 1840-1916 1913

  • That gives it rarity value and justifies a prem ium to recent smaller or minority interest transactions such as Westfield's sale of a 50% stake in its Stratford development at a 6% yield.

    Simon Property's Noisy U.K. Mall Retreat Ren 2011

  • Derived from unobtainable + - ium, Wikipedia says the word is used to refer to “any extremely rare, costly, or physically impossible material needed to fulfill a given design for a given application.”

    Cool Stuff: Unobtanium T-Shirt | /Film 2010

  • I never bought into the "hope-ium" high that most of the nation seems to still be on.

    Yes, it does (Jack Bog's Blog) 2009

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