a soft malleable silvery element of the lanthanide series of metals that occurs in monazite and is used to improve the mechanical properties of steel. Symbol: Yb; atomic no: 70; atomic wt: 173.04; valency: 2 or 3; relative density: 6.903 (alpha), 6.966 (beta); melting pt: 819°C; boiling pt: 1196°C
Word origin
C19: New Latin; see ytterbia
ytterbium in American English
(ɪˈtɜrbiəm)
noun
a scarce, divalent or trivalent, silvery, malleable chemical element, one of the rare-earth elements, found withyttrium in gadolinite and certain other minerals: symbol, Yb; at. no., 70
Word origin
ModL, contr. < neoytterbium, so named (1907) by its discoverer, G. Urbain (see lutetium) < ytterbia, ytterbium oxide, name coined (1878) by J.-C. G. de Marignac, Swiss chemist who isolatedit, after Ytterby: see erbium