(L. and F. fluere, flow or flux) In 1529, Georigius Agricola described the use offluorspar as a flux, and as early as 1670 Schwandhard found that glass was etched whenexposed to fluorspar treated with acid. Scheele and many later investigators, includingDavy, Gay-Lussac, Lavoisier, and Thenard, experimented with hydrofluoric acid, someexperiments ending in tragedy.

The element was finally isolated in 1866 by Moissan after nearly 74 years of continuouseffort.