Britannica Sources used in this answer

Why does antimony use the symbol Sb instead of a symbol based on its English name?

Created from Britannica articles using AI. AI can make mistakes, so verify using Britannica articles.

The chemical symbol for antimony is Sb because it is derived from stibium, the Latin word for the element. While the English name "antimony" comes from the Medieval Latin antimonium, many chemical symbols are based on their historical Latin or Greek names rather than their modern English equivalents to maintain consistency with the established scientific nomenclature.123