zirconiumhttp://www.oed.com/dictionary/zirconium_n%3Ftab%3Dmeaning_and_usezirconium, n.
Revised 2021

zirconiumnoun

  1. 1808–
    A hard lustrous grey metallic chemical element, atomic no. 40, which is one of the transition metals, occurs chiefly in zircon, and is used as a coating for nuclear fuel rods, in corrosion-resistant alloys, etc. Symbol Zr.
    1. 1808
      Had I been so fortunate as to have..procured the metallic substances I was in search of, I should have proposed for them the names of silicium, alumium, zirconium, and glucium.
      H. Davy in Philosophical Transactions (Royal Society) vol. 98 353
    2. 1812
      No substance has as yet been formed..in which zirconum can be supposed to exist free from oxygene.
      H. Davy, Elements of Chemical Philosophy 361
    3. 1868
      Zirconium..is a tetrad metal.
      H. B. Jones & H. Watts, Fownes's Manual of Elementary Chemistry 382
    4. 1955
      In its ores zirconium is invariably accompanied by hafnium, which absorbs neutrons all too readily.
      Scientific American October 35
    5. 1995
      Unfortunately zirconium tugs hard on the purse strings, at about £3.5 million a tonne.
      New Scientist 23 December 47/1

zirconium, n. was revised in March 2021.

zirconium, n. was last modified in March 2025.