An extremely rare, highly radioactive metallic chemical element with the symbol Fr and atomic number 87, the most unstable of the first 103 elements.
Named after France by French chemist Marguerite Perey, who discovered the element in 1939 at the Curie Institute in Paris. Perey initially called it 'actinium-K' but later chose 'francium' to honor her country. The name follows the pattern of other elements named after countries, using the Latin root with the standard '-ium' suffix.
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