Earth & SkyGreek → English
Chlorite
/ˈklɔːraɪt/noun
A group of soft, flaky green silicate minerals common in low-grade metamorphic rocks such as greenschist.
The Greek roots
χλωρός
chlōrós
pale green, fresh
Literally: “the green mineral”
Follow a root:χλωρός5 words
The story of the word
Named in the late 1700s for its colour, which is the same reason Humphry Davy called the gas chlorine in 1810. χλωρός in Homer describes fresh green shoots and also the pallor of fear, a yellow-green rather than a deep one. Chlorophyll is the green leaf pigment by the same root, so a green rock and a green leaf share a name given twenty-five centuries apart.
- How it travelled
- Ancient Greek → scientific coinage → English
- First recorded
- 18th century
Same family
chlorinechlorophyllchloroform
In a sentence
The slate splits along glossy planes packed with chlorite.