Sulfuret

The French word for sulphur is soufre, and the new French name for the combinations of sulphur in its simple state with metals, &c. is sulfure. Thus in the French language there is a remarkable difference between the words soufre and sulfure: but in English, especially as spondees are very uncommon in our language, we perhaps should not always make the proper distinction in pronunciation between the words sulphur and sulphure; as we might thereby mistake a combination of sulphur and arsenic for simple sulphur, and as the Latin word is sulphuretum; and especially, as perspicuity in expression should be holden above all other considerations in a language, I did not hesitate to render the French word sulfure into English by the word sulphuret, which is merely an abbreviation of the Latin word sulphuretum. Method of Chymical Nomenclature, 1788