Earth & SkyGreek → English
Chalcocite
/ˈkælkəsaɪt/noun
A dark grey copper sulphide, one of the richest copper ores.
The Greek roots
χαλκός
chalkós
copper, bronze
Literally: “copper stone”
Follow a root:χαλκός2 words
The story of the word
χαλκός covered both copper and the bronze made from it, and the confusion is old enough that translators of Homer still argue over which metal a given line means. The mineral is nearly eighty percent copper by weight, which made it the target of the great supergene enrichment deposits mined out in Arizona and Chile. Chalcopyrite, chalcedony and the age called Chalcolithic all come from the same stem.
- How it travelled
- Ancient Greek → scientific coinage → English
- First recorded
- 19th century
Same family
chalcopyritechalcolithicchalcography
In a sentence
The blanket of chalcocite under the oxidised cap was what made the mine pay.