Discovery of the name
Before molybdenum was even discovered, there was a group of lead-like elements called 'molybdos.' In this group, there was a mineral called molybdenite which would later be discovered as the element 'molybdenum.' Carl Wilhelm Scheele "determined that molybdenite was a sulfide compound of an as-yet unidentified element" (IMOA, n.d.) by doing chemical changes that were further continued by Peter Jacob Hjelm. After all of the changes were made, what remained was "a dark metal powder that [Hjelm] named 'molybdenum'" (IMOA, n.d.). (IMOA, n.d.) The new element was revealed to the public in 1781 (rsc.org, 2014).