THIS IS MY DAUGHTERS HOMEWORK QUESTION ANY IDEAS
2007-03-11 09:08:54 · 12 answers · asked by rachel b 1 in Education & Reference ➔ Primary & Secondary Education
Try here http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lead I haven't read through but it might say
2007-03-11 09:13:40 · answer #1 · answered by chelle0980 6 · 0⤊ 0⤋
The chemical symbol for lead is Pb, from Latin plumbum. The name "lead" is cognate with the Dutch "lood." The high-German "Blei" has no echoes in English or Dutch. English, however, uses the word "plumber" for a worker in lead. The older term is preserved in the name "Ledbetter." Dutch still uses the word "loodgieter" for a plumber, which means "lead-pourer." In Greek, lead is molubdos, a name now used for molybdenum. This meant "lead pencil" in Greek, which describes the soft MoS2 well.
So it looks like it is derived from the Dutch language.
2007-03-11 09:23:04 · answer #2 · answered by Robert W 5 · 0⤊ 0⤋
http://www.etymonline.com/index.php?term=lead
Which are you talking about? The verb or chemical?
Verb - The noun is first recorded c.1300, "action of leading." Meaning "the front or leading place" is from 1570. Johnson stigmatized it as "a low, despicable word." Sense in card-playing is from 1742; in theater, from 1831; in journalism, from 1927; in jazz bands, from 1934. Leader "one who leads" is from c.1300; as shortened form of leading article (1807) "prominent newspaper piece giving editorial opinion" it dates from 1837. Leadership first attested 1821.
Chemical - The name and the skill in using the metal seem to have been borrowed from the Celts (cf. O.Ir. luaide, probably from PIE base *plou(d)- "to flow"). Black lead was an old name for "graphite," hence lead pencil (1688) and the colloquial fig. phrase to have lead in one's pencil "be possessed of (esp. male sexual) vigor," first attested 1941 in Australian slang. Adjective form leaden is a relic of O.E. The fig. sense of "heavy, oppressive, dull" is first attested 1577. Lead balloon "a failure" is from 1960, Amer.Eng. slang. Lead-footed "slow" is from 1896; opposite sense of "fast" emerged 1940s in trucker's jargon, from notion of a foot heavy on the gas pedal.
2007-03-11 09:12:23 · answer #3 · answered by pugfug90 2 · 0⤊ 0⤋
It comes from the Latin "plumbum" and translates into "lead" The word plumber originates from this as,"leadworker".
2007-03-11 09:52:28 · answer #4 · answered by Merovingian 6 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Its a lead...cos its not a follow.
2007-03-14 03:54:36 · answer #5 · answered by knowitall 4 · 0⤊ 0⤋
from the latin word plumbum translated in english lead
2007-03-11 09:18:16 · answer #6 · answered by briggs 5 · 0⤊ 0⤋
I think it cames from a latin word to describe the metal
2007-03-11 09:13:05 · answer #7 · answered by ibs 4 · 0⤊ 0⤋
The original name was plumbum (latin), and I think that someone felt embarassed saying "I got plumbum in my pencil, and its magnetic!", so they just said "I'll call it lead!"
2007-03-11 09:17:38 · answer #8 · answered by Ravi A 3 · 0⤊ 0⤋
the same reason gold is gold stone is stone , someone named them . your Daughters teachers should be ashamed setting out Q's like that
2007-03-11 09:15:52 · answer #9 · answered by dunrockin404 5 · 0⤊ 0⤋
thats what the person who discovered it called it
2007-03-11 09:12:52 · answer #10 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 0⤋