Chem. Also 9 zirconum. [mod.L., f. ZIRCON.] A metallic element, obtained from zircon as a black powder or as a grayish crystalline substance. Symbol Zr.
1808. Davy, in Phil. Trans., XCVIII. 353. Had I been so fortunate as to have … procured the metallic substances I was in search of, I should have proposed for them the names of silicium, alumium, zirconium, and glucium. Ibid. (1812), Chem. Philos., 361. No substance has as yet been formed … in which zirconum can be supposed to exist free from oxygene.
1868. Fownes’ Chem., 352. Zirconium … is a tetrad metal.
attrib. 1868. Fownes’ Chem. (ed. 10), 382. Zirconium Oxide … is prepared by strongly igniting zircon.
1906. Athenæum, 1 Sept., 245/3. The osmium, tantalum, and zirconium incandescent filaments of electric glow-lamps.
