About
The character "镓", simplified from its traditional form "鎵", is a modern phono-semantic compound created to represent the chemical element gallium. Its traditional structure combines the metal radical "金" with the phonetic component "家" to indicate its category and approximate pronunciation, while the simplified form replaces "金" with the abbreviated metal radical "钅". Coined in the late 19th century after the element's discovery, the character has consistently denoted the element gallium without semantic shift.