einsteinium (n.)

as a type-name for a person of genius, 1920, in reference to German-born theoretical physicist Albert Einstein (1879-1955), who was world-famous from 1919 through media accounts of his work in theoretical physics. According to "German-American Names" (George F. Jones, 3rd ed., 2006) it means literally "place encompassed by a stone wall."

word-forming element in chemistry, used to coin element names, from Latin adjectival suffix -ium (neuter of -ius), which formed metal names in Latin (ferrum "iron," aurum "gold," etc.). In late 18c chemists began to pay attention to the naming of their substances with words that indicate their chemical properties. Berzelius in 1811 proposed forming all element names in Modern Latin. As the names of some recently discovered metallic elements already were in Latin form (uranium, chromium, borium, etc.), the pattern of naming metallic elements in -ium or -um was maintained (in cadmium, lithium, plutonium, etc.; helium is an anomaly).