ETYM New Lat., from Icel. Vanadîs, a surname of the Scandinavian goddess Freya.
Silver-white, malleable and ductile, metallic element, symbol V, atomic number 23, atomic weight 50.942. It occurs in certain iron, lead, and uranium ores and is widely distributed in small quantities in igneous and sedimentary rocks. It is used to make steel alloys, to which it adds tensile strength.
Spanish mineralogist Andrés del Rio (1764–1849) and Swedish chemist Nils Sefström (1787–1845) discovered vanadium independently, the former 1801 and the latter 1831. Del Rio named it “erythronium”, but was persuaded by other chemists that he had not in fact discovered a new element; Sefström gave it its present name, after the Norse goddess of love and beauty, Vanadis (or Freya).
A soft silvery white toxic metallic element used in steel alloys; it occurs in several complex minerals including carnotite and vanadinite; SYN. V, atomic number 23.