- holmium (n.)
- rare earth element, named by French chemist Lecoq de Boisbaudran (1838-1912) in 1886, from holmia "holmium oxide," name of an earth identified and named in Modern Latin by the earth's discoverer, Swedish chemist Per Teodor Cleve (1840-1905), in 1879 from Holmia, Latin name of Stockholm. With metallic element ending -ium. Holmia was isolated from erbia, the Scandinavian earth which also yielded thulium, scandium, and ytterbium.
