fluorine

Meanings

1. 1
   noun

   the chemical element with symbol F and atomic number 9, whose elemental form is an extremely reactive, toxic, pale-yellow halogen gas

   Fluorine is so reactive that it occurs naturally only in chemical compounds.

From Latin fluor ("flow") + -ine, through the mineral names fluorite and fluorspar; fluorspar was used as a flux to help molten materials flow. The name was proposed in the early nineteenth century, decades before Henri Moissan isolated elemental fluorine in 1886.

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