lithium

From New Latin lithium, from Ancient Greek λίθος (líthos, “stone”) + -ium.

• IPA^(key): /ˈlɪθi.əm/, enPR: lĭth'ēəm

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lithium (countable and uncountable, plural lithiums)

1. (uncountable) The simplest alkali metal, the lightest solid element, and the third lightest chemical element (symbol Li) with an atomic number of 3. It is a soft, silvery metal.
   • 2019, George Monbiot, “Cars are killing us. Within 10 years, we must phase them out”, in Guardian.:

     Already, beautiful places are being wrecked by an electric vehicle resource rush. Lithium mining, for example, is now poisoning rivers and depleting groundwater from Tibet to Bolivia.

2. (countable) A single atom of this element.
3. (pharmacology, uncountable) Lithium carbonate or other preparations of lithium metal used as a mood stabiliser to treat manic depression and bipolar disorders.
   • 1994, Elizabeth Wurtzel, Prozac Nation: Young and Depressed in America, Houghton Mifflin, →ISBN, page 4:

     There's more: Part of the reason I am so meek is that I stopped taking my lithium a few weeks before. It's not that I have a death wish, and it's not that I'm like Axl Rose and think that lithium makes me less manly (he supposedly stopped taking it after his first wife told him that his dick wasn't as hard as it used to be and that sex with him was lousy; […] ).

   • 2008, Barbara Kozier, Fundamentals of Nursing: Concepts, Process and Practice, Pearson Education, →ISBN, page 191:

     Lithium has been used as a mood stabiliser for 50 years but its action mechanism is still unclear.

4. A lithium battery.

• Lithium on the British Royal Society of Chemistry's online periodic table

Derived from Latin lithium.

• IPA^(key): [ˈliːtɪjum]
• Hyphenation: li‧thium

lithium n

1. lithium

lithium

1. Alternative spelling of litium
   • 2015, Peter C. Gøtzsche, Dødelig psykiatri og organiseret fornægtelse, Art People, →ISBN:

     Lithium er meget giftigt, og dets serumkoncentration skal overvåges.

     (please add an English translation of this quotation)

   • 2006, Bogen Om Grundstofferne, Gyldendal Uddannelse, →ISBN, page 16:

     Batteriet i pacemakeren indeholder i de fleste tilfælde grundstoffet lithium.

     (please add an English translation of this quotation)

   • 1862, Tidsskrift for physik og chemi samt disse videnskabers anvendelse, page 6:

     Idet nu Kalium , Lithium og Barium efterhaanden forflygtigedes, forsvandt deres Farvelinier i den angivne Rækkefølge , ...

     (please add an English translation of this quotation)

Ultimately from Swedish litium.

• IPA^(key): /ˈli.tiˌʏm/

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• Hyphenation: li‧thi‧um

lithium n (uncountable)

1. lithium [from mid-19th c.]

• lithiumcarbonaat
• lithiumtherapie

• IPA^(key): /li.tjɔm/

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lithium m (uncountable)

1. lithium

• tétrahydruroaluminate de lithium

• “lithium”, in Trésor de la langue française informatisé [Digitized Treasury of the French Language], 2012.

lithium (uncountable)

1. lithium

From Ancient Greek λίθος (líthos, “stone”) + -ium.

• (Classical) IPA^(key): /ˈli.tʰi.um/, [ˈlʲɪt̪ʰiʊ̃ˑ]
• (modern Italianate Ecclesiastical) IPA^(key): /ˈli.ti.um/, [ˈliːt̪ium]

lithium n (genitive lithiī); second declension

1. (New Latin, chemistry) lithium

Second-declension noun (neuter).