Earth & SkyGreek → English
Magnetite
/ˈmæɡnɪtaɪt/noun
A black iron oxide mineral, the most magnetic naturally occurring substance on earth.
The Greek roots
Μαγνησία
Magnēsía
Magnesia, a district
λίθος
líthos
stone
Literally: “the Magnesian stone”
The story of the word
μαγνῆτις λίθος meant simply the stone from Magnesia, a place ancient writers put sometimes in Thessaly and sometimes in Lydia. Lodestone, magnetite that has been magnetised by a lightning strike or the earth's field, gave both China and Europe the compass. The same place-name also produced magnesium and, through a Latin scribe's corruption, manganese.
- How it travelled
- Ancient Greek → Latin → German coinage → English
- First recorded
- 1840s
The same roots elsewhere
Other languages reached for exactly the same Greek pieces.
Same family
magnetmagnesiummanganesemagnetism
In a sentence
Drag a magnet through black beach sand and it comes up furred with magnetite.
Pigeons carry magnetite in their heads, which may be part of how they navigate.