A brittle metallic element with atomic number 32, used in semiconductors and electronic devices.
From Latin 'Germania' (the Roman name for the Germanic lands) + -ium (the Latin suffix for elements). Named by its discoverer Clemens Winkler in 1886 to honor the element's country of discovery.
Germanium was the 'predicted element'—Russian scientist Mendeleev left a gap in his periodic table and predicted its exact properties before it was discovered, one of the great triumphs of scientific theory!
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