Earth & SkyGreek → English
Amphibole
/ˈæmfɪboʊl/noun
A large group of dark, double-chain silicate minerals including hornblende, common in igneous and metamorphic rocks.
The Greek roots
ἀμφί
amphí
on both sides
βάλλω
bállō
to throw
Literally: “thrown both ways”
The story of the word
René Just Haüy named the group in 1801 using the Greek word for ambiguous, because these minerals are so easily mistaken for others, and he wanted the name to warn geologists. The same adjective gives amphiboly in logic, a fallacy where a sentence can be pulled two ways by its grammar. Some amphiboles crystallise as fibres, which is how one of them, crocidolite, became blue asbestos.
- How it travelled
- Ancient Greek → French coinage → English
- First recorded
- 19th century
Same family
amphitheatreamphibianballisticproblem
In a sentence
Black needles of amphibole stand out against the pale feldspar.