Post by Leslie DanksPost by Peter T. DanielsPost by Christian WeisgerberPost by Helmut RichterWhat I called a "reverse trend" is mainly in science (Äther ->
Ether, Zäsium -> Caesium)
Äther -> Ether is differnt. Äther is a direct loan from scietntific
Graecolatin, which was replaced by more modern Anglograecolatin later.
Zäsium - I doubt that that was ever used in a scientific context, and
it is not probably that the word in either spelling was used often in
an everyday context at all. Where did you get "Zäsium -> Caesium" from?
My trusty _Brockhaus der Naturwissenschaften und der Technik_, 1964,
describes the element under "Zäsium" and there is no entry for
"Caesium" at all, despite "Cerium" pointing to "Zer".
Did you check Cesium (the English spelling)?
[quote]
Caesium is the spelling recommended by the International Union of Pure and
Applied Chemistry (IUPAC).[2] The American Chemical Society (ACS) has used
the spelling cesium since 1921,[3][4] following Webster’s Third New
International Dictionary.
[/quote]
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Caesium>
http://www.iupac.org/publications/books/rbook/Red_Book_2005.pdf
"
The IUPAC-approved names of the atoms of atomic numbers 1-111 for use in the
English language are listed in alphabetical order in Table I*. It is
obviously desirable that the names used in any language resemble these names
as closely as possible, but it is recognized that for elements named in the
past there are often well-established and very different names in other
languages.
"
That document cares about naming practices, not spelling. Naming and
spelling are completely different things. Of course, where there are two
usable spellings within the same language, it is to be understood that the
one closer to that which is listed in 'Table 1' is to be preferred.
So in english Caesium and Cesium both work, so let's use Caesium, which is
closer to the latin name (NB Cesium isn't even proscribed; it's mentioned as
an alternative in a footnote to the table). Of course in other languages the
closest thing to Caesium should be used, but depending on the language there
may be some distance still. In portuguese, which actually has orthographical
and loaning rules, you can't do with anything other than <Césio>. This is
not at all a case of 'for elements named in the past there are often
well-established and very different names in other languages'. A case of
'for elements named in the past there are often well-established and very
different names' is english 'iron'; certainly the IUPAC isn't proposing that
that name should become international. Or that, say, if there were a german
word *ferrum, 'eisen' should be preferred to it.