Natrium and Sodium

Did you know Sodium = Natrium?

🤔

In periodic table of elements, Natrium is within Group 1 (Natrium = Group 1 alkali metal).

Too from above snapshot, K (Kalium) is called Potassium — it's K, there is no letter K in the word "Potassium". 🫠

Let us dissect the inconsistency.

---

Periodic Table

Once upon a time, a Russian alchemist named Dmitri Mendeleev was born. He was born as a baby boy, not directly as an alchemist.

He created the periodic table out of his brilliancy.

Alchemy is taken from Arabic Al-Kīmiyā' (ٱلْكِيمْيَاء).

Al- (ٱلْ), Arabic definite article, means the.

Kīmiyā' (كيمياء), the root word, means transmutation or chemistry.

Al-kīmiyā' = the art of transformation, or the chemistry.

Alchemy is not chemistry.

It's chemistry with a soul.

A map of matter woven with meaning.

Not just what it is, but what it means.

---

Alchemy is symbolic, spiritual, and psychological as well as chemical.

It speaks in metaphor: gold = perfection, lead = base self, fire = transformation.

It's a system for changing the soul through changing matter — as above, so below.

The laboratory is a temple, not just a workspace.

Then Royal Society (RS) and British scientific establishment saw the bit, the periodic table of elements. Oh how they couldn't help themselves. So precious. BUT! With a twist. Because even in those days, their chemistry was already strongly tied to industry: soap, glasses, textiles, and so on.

They began to anglicise the elements:

Natrium ➡️ Sodium. ❓

Kalium ➡️ Potassium. ❓

Aurum ➡️ GOLD. 🤷‍♂️

Et cetera.

Sodium and potassium do not sound English, unlike gold, silver, mercury, and so forth. They sound Medieval Latin, hence my quizzical look because of the discrepancy with their symbols. Sodium is Na and Potassium is K. 🤔

Actually, sodium and potassium were coined by Humphry Davy in 1807 — one of RS president from 1820 to 1827. Still, -ium suffix. Not Classical Latin, Medieval Latin.

Medieval Latin

The Latin used in Europe from roughly the 5th to the 15th century, after the fall of the Western Roman Empire and before the Renaissance sparked the revival of Classical Latin.

• Not native: No one spoke it as a mother tongue — it was written and learned.
• Christianised: Heavy influence from Church usage — theology, philosophy, canon law.
• Flexible grammar: Less rigid than Classical Latin, often bending rules to match local tongues.
• New vocabulary: Added terms for feudalism, alchemy, scholasticism, science, and certainly... -ium.

---

Sodium

Let's begin from Natrium. It has Arabic origin, Natrūn (نَطْرُون). Absorbed by Latin as Natron. Went forward to Medieval Latin, Natrium. Then finally, the English twisted it into Sodium.

Sodium, because it was found in soda (soda ash).

Thus:

soda + ium = sodium. 🤦

Humphry Davy with scarf — 1807.

Nothing wrong with it, because it was from their familiarity with the actual product. But it needs a BLOODY FOOTNOTE if they are keeping the symbol Na as put by Monsieur Mendeleev. Oh well. I mean Gospodin Mendeleev.

Back to Natrūn (نَطْرُون), it refers to:

• Naturally occurring natrium carbonate decahydrate (Na₂CO₃·10H₂O).
• Found in dry lake beds, especially in Wadi El Natrun, Egypt. The place Wadi El Natrun got its name from the substance, not the other way round.
• Used in mummification, soap making, glassmaking, and early alchemical practices.

Now, soda. Soda back then didn't mean fizzy pop at all. It was that soda ash, natrium carbonate, or blasted sodium carbonate ➡️ Na₂CO₃.

Soda timeline:

• Arabic: suwwād (سُوَّاد) or sūda (سُودَة).

  Refers to ashy or blackish residue, or plants used to extract alkaline substances.

  Related to barilla plants (halophytes) used to make natrium carbonate.

  The Arabs perhaps got the knowledge from the ancient Egyptians... Perhaps.

  Ancient Egyptian writing system is depicted like some weird inconsistent interpretative mood swing, and that's bollock — how can one builder build anything if one needed to decipher the instruction each time? 🤷‍♂️

  "Ancient Egyptian" (Egyptology) narrative is quite... interesting. 🧐

  As in why a gigantic structure like the pyramid isn't mentioned even once in the Old Testament? Israelites were forced labours in Egypt, weren't they? No mention of that structure.

  And there, that big stone cone. Barmy that was. We were whipped. Our coffees, were put whipped cream. Charming Pharaoh. We were forced to sip them. Thankful was the expected reaction, but nay, we were not.

  Post-Exodus 1:1-3.

  None, no such thing. Was it selective employment? 🤔 Fascinating that. Who can confirm the writing on Moses' tablets when nobody could read? Oh wait, that's a bit off topic.

• Medieval Latin: soda.

  Used by alchemists and apothecaries to describe plant-based alkaline substances (especially for soapmaking and glassmaking).

• Italian/Old European: soda.

  Spread through commerce and alchemical circles during the Renaissance, and then into English.

English had been familiar with "soda" before Natrium entered the chatroom. Hence, that. We call it sodium — but lo! no one dared to change the Na. Because powdered wigs cannot be reasoned with once they put powder on their wigs.

---

Potassium

Potassium = Kalium (K).

It was taken from potash. Britain loves pots.

Potash = ash from a pot.

The term potash refers to kalium carbonate (potassium carbonate), which was historically made by leaching wood ash in a pot.

Hence the "pot" and "ash".

pot + ash + ium = potassium. 🤷‍♂️🤦

Humphry Davy with scarf — 1807.

Not potashium. Pot ass it is. Potashium is peasant talk. Although, with, out, pea, sant, none, would, hap, pen. (That is called posh incantation.)

Kalium is from Arabic al-qalyah (القَلْيَة).

Root verb: قلى (qalaya) — to roast, to fry, or to burn (in fire).

Originally referred to roasting or calcining something over heat. Al-qalyah came to mean the substance derived from plant ashes used in soapmaking and chemical processes. It's connected with the production of alkaline substances — hence the word alkali and later, kalium. The kali bit.

Kali in Kali Linux isn't using this absorbed Arabic "kali". It is taken from Hindu goddess, Kali, goddess of destruction, time, and power. As in break into things so you can understand and secure them. Or, just break it and understand none. 🤣 Any sysadmin here? You're welcome.

But the more we think of it, the qalaya (kali), as in to fry or burn, indeed also "destroys" the material... in a way. 🔥 Powerful plasma induced transformation. 🤔 Time... 🤷

Kalium-Potassium timeline goes as such:

Arabic ➡️ Latin ➡️ British (RS) rename ➡️ periodic table confusion.

---

IUPAC

Founded in 1919, International Union of Pure and Applied Chemistry (IUPAC) — after RS cemented English names for those two elements (and others, naturally: gold, silver, mercury, etc.), the international community adopted a bastardised compromise:

• Latin-based symbols (Na, K, Au, Ag, Hg, etc.)

• With English element names dominate in Anglophone science — complete with the shenanigans: sodium and potassium.

  If you wanted the RS to take your element seriously in the 1800s, you slapped "ium" on it like talc on a wig.

DALL·E with its might, generated clones. Oh dear heavens, DALL·E. But hey, it's funnier. Let's name this as baroque feature. It made me even wonder so much about the realm of those two chaps. Like timeline is optional in it.

---

Sod

Although soda has sod in it, it's unrelated, unfortunately.

---

Powdered Wig

Oh... 😂

The reason why they put scented powder on their wigs (perukes) was because syphilis. Yes, the disease. The sexually transmitted infection. Around the late 1500s to early 1600s, syphilis swept through Europe like a cursed wind. One of the more charming symptoms was hair loss. So the elites started wearing wigs to cover baldness caused by disease... But not just any wigs — big, curly, grandiose wigs to scream "I'm important, not infected! Sod off."

The powder was to:

• Hide the smell.

  Natural wigs (often made from horse or goat hair) could stink. Powder (often scented with lavender, rose, or orange peel) helped mask the odour.

• Look posh.

  Powdered white wigs became a sign of aristocracy, refinement, and wealth. Only the rich could afford to regularly clean and powder their horsehair scalp-helmets. Horsehair scalp-helmets. 🪖🐴

  Posh, the term is an unknown (debated) origin — but it is surely related to money hoarding 🤣, snooty upper-echelon vibe, and such. Not all like that, only most.

• Look older and more authoritative.

  White hair was associated with wisdom and status, so young barristers, judges, and officials all powdered up like they were born in 1450.

• Follow Louis XIV. Le Roi Soleil, the Sun King. "L'État, c'est moi. HAHAHA."

  France went wig-mad. England followed, because 🇬🇧 💘 🇫🇷.

And oh, penetration testing (Kali Linux bit) then the syphilis. 🧐

Well, we don't test a random opening with Kali Linux for certain. And surely, Kali Linux is an operating system. The tools are the applications it ships with. Such as Nmap, Metasploit, Aircrack-ng, Hydra, and so on. Kali Linux is the toolbox. The toolbox contains the wrenches, screwdrivers, pliers, etc.

Let me test this cavity, alright, zipper down. Ah, electrocuting sensation. 5 volts, around 100 or 125 mA. Now, I have a fried sausage. Fascinating defence mechanism. Do I have syphilis now? (Touching head. Grabbing hair. Feeling lips.) Not yet. (Order a peacock hairpiece, custom combination of Mg₃Si₄O₁₀(OH)₂ and Hugo Boss Eau De Toilette — beyond toilet water.) "Umbrella before the rain" technique.

If I did this in Louis XIV era, I would rather be not. He was not syphilitic, simply balding since his early 20s and quite theatrical. He lived for 76 years. It was astonishing for the 17th century, especially for a king.

---

Motive

The motivation behind this post is to make us more confused. At some point, later, our thoughts will then converge into "oh" — then "hm".

---

Background

Because I was reading an intravenous fluid bag. It said Sodium Chloride (NaCl). I was, oh, what a wonderful font. It didn't actually say anything per se.