A Note on the Term "Chalcogen"

After summarizing the suggestions of various textbook authors as to the meaning of the term chalcogen, including "chalk former," "calx former," "chain former," "brass giver," and "copper producing," it is argued that the best translation is "ore former." It is further suggested that the term chalcogenide should be replaced with the term chalcide in order to maintain a parallelism with the terms halogen and halide. Some older class-descriptors for the group-16 elements are also discussed.