tennessine

Etymology

Tennessee + -ine, named after the Tennessee region. Promulgated in June 2016 by the IUPAC based on recommendations of the Joint Institute for Nuclear Research, Oak Ridge National Laboratory, Vanderbilt University and Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory to honor the region where the element was discovered. Suffix -ine, rather than -ium, is due to it being a halogen (like fluorine or chlorine).

noun

1. The chemical element (halogen) with atomic number 117
   One of the newest members of the periodic table will likely have a familiar sound to it, even if the spelling might be a bit off: Tennessine. 8 June 2016, “Tennessee Gets a Place at the Table with Newest Element: Tennessine”, in Tennessee Today
   In January 2016 the International Union of Pure and Applied Chemistry (IUPAC) announced the discovery of four new elements, so completing the seventh row of the periodic table. They have since been named as nihonium, Nh, muscovium, Mc, tennessine, Ts, and organesson, Og. The procedures for naming new elements are clearly laid out by IUPAC. 2018, Mark Weller, Tina Overton, Fraser Armstrong, Jonathan Rourke, chapter 1, in Inorganic Chemistry, Oxford University Press, page 21
   Researchers carefully choose the makeup of the beam and the target in hopes of producing a designer atom of the element desired. That’s how the four newest elements were created: nihonium (element 113), moscovium (115), tennessine (117) and oganesson (118) (SN Online: 11/30/16). 27 February 2019, Emily Conover, “Extreme elements push the boundaries of the periodic table”, in Science News