1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Glucinum

GLUCINUM, an alternative name for Beryllium (q.v.). When L. N. Vauquelin in 1798 published in the Annales de chimie an account of a new earth obtained by him from beryl he refrained from giving the substance a name, but in a note to his paper the editors suggested glucine, from γλυκύς, sweet, in reference to the taste of its salts, whence the name Glucinum or Glucinium (symbol Gl. or sometimes G). The name beryllium was given to the metal by German chemists and was generally used until recently, when the earlier name was adopted.