About
The character 镉 (gé), traditional form 鎘, is a modern phono-semantic compound created for chemistry to denote the element cadmium. Its semantic radical 钅 (simplified) / 金 (traditional) classifies it as a metal, matching cadmium’s nature as a transition metal. The component 鬲 (gé), originally a cooking vessel, serves here purely as a phonetic element to approximate the element’s Western name. This structure exemplifies the standardized method for adapting Chinese to new scientific terms.
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