Chem. [mod. L., f. L. tellūs, tellūr-em the earth + -ium, suffix of names of metals. So called by Klaproth, 1798, prob. in contrast to uranium (Gr. οὐρανός heaven), a metal which he had discovered in 1789.
Cf. Klaproth in Crell’s Chem. Annalen, 1798, pt. I. 100, ‘welchem ich hiermit den von deralten Muttererde entlehnten Namen Tellurium beylege.’]
One of the rarer elements, a tin-white shining brittle substance, formerly from its outward characters classed among the metals, but in its chemical properties and relations belonging to the same series as sulphur and selenium. It occurs native in rhombohedral crystals, isomorphous with those of antimony, arsenic, and bismuth. Symbol Te; atomic weight 128.
1800. trans. Lagrange’s Chem., I. 447. With sulphur this metal forms a grey sulphuret of tellurium, of a radiated structure.
1801. Hatchett in Phil. Trans., XCII. 63. Other metals lately discovered, such as uranium, titanium, and tellurium.
1816. P. Cleaveland, Min., 565. Native Tellurium is never perfectly pure. It always contains a greater or less quantity of gold, and sometimes embraces iron, silver, lead, copper, and sulphur.
1862. Miller, Elem. Chem. (ed. 2), III. 52.
1881. Lubbock, in Nature, 1 Sept., 409/2. In Aldebaran … we may infer the presence of hydrogen, sodium, magnesium, iron, calcium, tellurium, antimony, bismuth, and mercury; some of which are not yet known to occur in the sun.
1882. Roscoe, Elem. Chem., 121. Oxygen, sulphur, selenium, and tellurium form a natural group of elements, each uniting with two atoms of hydrogen to produce a series of bodies possessing analogous properties.
b. With qualifying words, applied to minerals or ores containing a preponderance of tellurium, as bismuthic tellurium; black tellurium, foliated tellurium, synonyms of NAGYAGITE; graphic tellurium, yellow or white tellurium, synonyms of SYLVANITE. (Dana, Min., 1864.)
1849. D. Campbell, Inorg. Chem., 304. The [ore] named bismuthic tellurium is that from which it is most easily obtained.
1864. [see c.].
c. attrib. and Comb. (a) attrib. = ‘of tellurium,’ in names of chemical compounds, as tellurium bromide, chloride, dioxide, salts, nitrate, sulphate, etc.; in other uses, as tellurium acids, alloys, minerals, ores; (b) in obj. relation, as tellurium-bearing adj.; (c) tellurium glance Min., nagyagite, or black telluride of lead.
1834. Prout, Chem., etc., I. ix. § 3 (1855), 113. Sulphur acids, selenium acids, and tellurium acids.
1853. Ure, Dict. Arts, II. 200. They are celebrated for their tellurium ore.
1864. Dana (Webster), Tellurium glance, a blackish or lead-gray sectile mineral, of a splendent luster, consisting chiefly or tellurium, sulphur, lead, and gold;—called also black tellurium.
1869. Roscoe, Elem. Chem. (1882), 121. When heated in the air it [tellurium] burns with a bluish-green flame, forming white fumes of tellurium dioxide, TeO2.
1874. Raymond, Statist. Mines & Mining, 298. The belt of tellurium-bearing veins is found to extend from the Gray Eagle lode…, in a southerly direction. Ibid. (1877), 304. In all, the characteristic tellurium minerals have been found.
1877. Watts, Fownes’ Chem. (ed. 12), I. 227. Tellurium salts—sulphate, nitrate, oxalate, chloride. Ibid., 228. Tellurium sulphides … chlorides.
