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The term arsenic was originally applied to a lemon-yellow mineral that is a compound of arsenic, hence its origin in zar, the Persian word for gold. The Arabic derivative of this word was misinterpreted by foreign listeners as including the definite article al, and in Greek the supposed beneficial effects on virility led the term to be associated by folk etymology with the similar-sounding words arsenikos, "masculine," and arsēn, "manly." In English the word still referred to the mineral at first (for which orpiment was the other current name), and it was not until the early 17th century that it was applied to white arsenic or arsenic trioxide. The element arsenic itself was isolated and so named at the start of the 19th century.
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