<P> Alchemists burned zinc metal in air and collected the resulting zinc oxide on a condenser . Some alchemists called this zinc oxide lana philosophica, Latin for "philosopher's wool", because it collected in wooly tufts, whereas others thought it looked like white snow and named it nix album . </P> <P> The name of the metal was probably first documented by Paracelsus, a Swiss - born German alchemist, who referred to the metal as "zincum" or "zinken" in his book Liber Mineralium II, in the 16th century . The word is probably derived from the German zinke, and supposedly meant "tooth - like, pointed or jagged" (metallic zinc crystals have a needle - like appearance). Zink could also imply "tin - like" because of its relation to German zinn meaning tin . Yet another possibility is that the word is derived from the Persian word سنگ seng meaning stone . The metal was also called Indian tin, tutanego, calamine, and spinter . </P> <P> German metallurgist Andreas Libavius received a quantity of what he called "calay" of Malabar from a cargo ship captured from the Portuguese in 1596 . Libavius described the properties of the sample, which may have been zinc . Zinc was regularly imported to Europe from the Orient in the 17th and early 18th centuries, but was at times very expensive . </P> <P> Metallic zinc was isolated in India by 1300 AD, much earlier than in the West . Before it was isolated in Europe, it was imported from India in about 1600 CE . Postlewayt's Universal Dictionary, a contemporary source giving technological information in Europe, did not mention zinc before 1751 but the element was studied before then . </P>

This close relative of zn is used with nickel