Earth & SkyGreek → English
Phlogopite
/ˈflɒɡəpaɪt/noun
A brown magnesium mica that splits into thin flexible sheets.
The Greek roots
φλογωπός
phlogōpós
fiery-looking
Literally: “fire-faced”
Follow a root:φλογωπός1 word
The story of the word
Breithaupt named it in 1841 for the coppery fire that flares in a sheet held up to the light. Its root, phlox, is the plain Greek word for flame and also the name of the garden flower. The same syllable sits inside phlogiston, the fire-substance that chemists believed in until Lavoisier weighed the ash and found it heavier.
- How it travelled
- Ancient Greek → scientific coinage → English
- First recorded
- 19th century
Same family
phlogistonphloxphlegm
In a sentence
Sheets of phlogopite peeled off the specimen like pages, each one bending without breaking.