Editing Sulfur (section)

===Spelling and etymology===
''Sulfur'' is derived from the Latin word ''{{lang|la|sulpur}}'', which was [[Hellenized]] to ''{{lang|la|sulphur}}'' in the erroneous belief that the Latin word came from Greek. This spelling was later reinterpreted as representing an /f/ sound and resulted in the spelling ''{{lang|la|sulfur}}'', which appears in Latin toward the end of the [[Classical antiquity|Classical period]]. The true Ancient Greek word for sulfur, {{lang|grc|θεῖον}}, ''theîon'' (from earlier {{lang|grc|θέειον}}, ''théeion''), is the source of the international chemical prefix ''[[thio-]]''. The Modern Standard Greek word for sulfur is θείο, ''theío''.

In 12th-century [[Anglo-Norman language|Anglo-French]], it was ''{{lang|xno|sulfre}}''. In the 14th century, the erroneously Hellenized Latin ''{{lang|la|-ph-}}'' was restored in Middle English ''{{lang|enm|sulphre}}''. By the 15th century, both full Latin spelling variants ''sulfur'' and ''sulphur'' became common in English. The parallel ''f~ph'' spellings continued in Britain until the 19th century, when the word was standardized as ''sulphur''.<ref name="OED">{{Cite OED|sulphur}}</ref> On the other hand, ''sulfur'' was the form eventually chosen in the United States, though multiple place names (such as [[White Sulphur Springs (disambiguation)|White Sulphur Springs]]) use ''-ph-''. Canada uses both spellings.

[[International Union of Pure and Applied Chemistry|IUPAC]] adopted the spelling ''sulfur'' in 1990<ref>{{Cite journal|title=So long sulphur|date=4 August 2009|journal=Nature Chemistry |volume=1 |issue=5 |pages=333 |doi=10.1038/nchem.301 |pmid=21378874 |bibcode=2009NatCh...1Q.333. |doi-access=free}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |last1=International Union of Pure and Applied Chemistry: Inorganic Chemistry Division, Commission on Nomenclature of Inorganic Chemistry |title=Nomenclature of Inorganic Chemistry, (Recommendations 1990) |date=1990 |publisher=Blackwell Scientific Publications |location=Oxford, UK |pages=39,40,41,240,247}}</ref> as did the Nomenclature Committee of the [[Royal Society of Chemistry]] in 1992, restoring the spelling ''sulfur'' to Britain.<ref>{{cite journal |last1=McNaught |first1=Alan |title=Journal style update |journal=The Analyst |volume=116 |issue=11 |page=1094 |date=1991 |doi=10.1039/AN9911601094 |bibcode=1991Ana...116.1094M}}</ref> [[Oxford English Dictionary|Oxford Dictionaries]] note that "in chemistry and other technical uses ... the ''-f-'' spelling is now the standard form for this and related words in British as well as US contexts, and is increasingly used in general contexts as well."<ref>{{cite web |url=https://en.oxforddictionaries.com/definition/sulphur |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20161120085132/https://en.oxforddictionaries.com/definition/sulphur |url-status=dead |archive-date=20 November 2016 |title=sulphur – definition of sulphur in English |website=Oxford Dictionaries |access-date=2016-11-19}}</ref>