volfram

name used by the mineralogist Johan Gottschalk Wallerius in 1747. For Georgius Agricola, the term derives from wolf (wolf) and froth (in the sense of slaver) (Latin lupi spuma) in reference to the appearance of the compound formed during the fusion of minerals containing tungsten and tin. There is an interpretation linked to the alchemical heritage, "wolf-the wolf" was the generic term for antimony with which tungsten, in the form of ores, was confused.