Sulphur
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The name of the chemical element symbolized as S, of atomic weight ~32; atomic number 16, is spelled traditionally in Britain as sulphur, and in the U.S. as sulfur. This latter spelling has been increasingly adopted as a standard in scientific subjects, for example by the Royal Society of Chemistry (in 1992); bur various house styles and academic disciplines may still require sulphur.
- Etymological note: sulphur is derived from Latin, where its forms included sulpur and sulfur, and slightly later sulphur. The '-h-' appears to have been added in deference to the letter φ ('phi') in Greek, the 'educated' language to the Romans. φ is the transliteration in Greek of the sound represented by '-f-' in most European languages.
The above also applies to the many compounded forms, such as sulphide/sulfide, sulphate/sulfate, sulphuric/sulfuric, sulphurous/sulfurous etc., and the combining form sulpho-/sulfo-.
Make sure that your spelling of any of these words ('-f-' or '-ph-')
remains consistent with that of all the others in a given piece of writing.