Earth & SkyGreek → English
Nepheline
/ˈnɛfəliːn/noun
A silica-poor feldspathoid mineral found in alkaline igneous rocks.
The Greek roots
νεφέλη
nephélē
cloud
Literally: “the cloudy one”
Follow a root:νεφέλη1 word
The story of the word
René Just Haüy named it in 1801 after a laboratory habit rather than a look: drop a fragment in strong acid and the clear crystal turns cloudy as it gelatinises. Aristophanes built the same word into Νεφελοκοκκυγία, the city the birds construct in mid-air, which English still translates as Cloud-cuckoo-land. Industry now grinds nepheline syenite into glass and ceramics by the million tonnes.
- How it travelled
- Ancient Greek → French → English
- First recorded
- 1801
Same family
nephelometernephology
In a sentence
Nepheline never occurs with quartz, because the two would react.
The quarry ships nepheline syenite to glassworks across the region.