Earth & SkyGreek → English
Lepidolite
/lɪˈpɪdəlaɪt/noun
A lilac-to-pink lithium-bearing mica that splits into thin flexible flakes.
The Greek roots
λεπίς
lepís
scale, flake
λίθος
líthos
stone
Literally: “scale stone”
The story of the word
Klaproth named it in the 1790s for the way it comes apart in scales, like fish skin. Its colour is a fingerprint of its chemistry: the pinks and lilacs come from lithium with a little manganese. Arfvedson, who identified lithium in petalite in 1817, confirmed the new metal in lepidolite as well, so this mica and spodumene were the first two minerals known to carry it. The same λεπίς names the Lepidoptera, the scale-winged insects, which is what butterfly dust is.
- How it travelled
- Ancient Greek → scientific coinage → English
- First recorded
- 1790s
Same family
Lepidopteramonolithmegalithneolithic
In a sentence
A slab of lepidolite on the windowsill, lilac and flaking at the edges.