Why sodium instead of natrium?



Hello. I'm a Korean who lives in Korea. Perhaps this question is not
important at all, but I'm just curious. Many Korean names of
elements , that are not in Korean language, are the same as those of
English. For example, we call helium as helium, lithium as lithium.
This is also true for Japanese (I speak some Japanese).

But there are some names those are not the same as English, but are
not Korean either. Natrium and kalium. In Korean and Japanese, we call
them natrium and kalium, but they are sodium and potassium in English.
Their symbols are also Na and K. Why do they read it as sodium when
they write it as Na in English? For iron, I can understand why they
read it as iron instead of ferrum. That maybe because the word iron is
original English, thus is much more familiar. But sodium and potassium
look like they are from Latin, too. Is there any reason why English
speakers have chosen sodium instead of natrium?

Thank you.
.


Quantcast