Earth & SkyGreek → English
Anthracite
/ˈænθrəsaɪt/noun
The hardest grade of coal, over ninety per cent carbon, burning with little smoke.
The Greek roots
ἄνθραξ
ánthrax
coal, live charcoal
-ίτης
-ítēs
stone, mineral of
Literally: “coal stone”
The story of the word
ἄνθραξ was a burning coal, and Greek doctors used the same word for the black scabbed ulcer that a certain cattle disease raises on human skin, which is why anthrax is called that. Anthracite is dense enough to take a polish and was once cut into ornaments. Pennsylvania sat on the largest field in the world and burned it in every stove; the word entered English around 1800. Chemists went back to ἄνθραξ again for anthracene, the coal-tar hydrocarbon behind the first synthetic red dye.
- How it travelled
- Ancient Greek → Latin → French → English
- First recorded
- 19th century
Same family
anthraxanthraceneanthracosis
In a sentence
Anthracite burns slower and hotter than the soft coal, and leaves half the ash.