Earth & SkyGreek → English
Pyrrhotite
/ˈpɪrətaɪt/noun
A bronze-red iron sulphide mineral, notable for being weakly magnetic.
The Greek roots
πυρρός
pyrrhós
flame-coloured, reddish
Literally: “the flame-coloured one”
Follow a root:πυρρός2 words
The story of the word
Breithaupt named it in 1835 for the colour, from πυρρός, the adjective for the red of fire and the source of the name Pyrrhus. Its magnetism is what sets it apart from ordinary pyrite in the field, hence the old name magnetic pyrites. Concrete aggregate contaminated with pyrrhotite has cracked thousands of house foundations in Connecticut and Quebec, because the mineral expands as it oxidises.
- How it travelled
- Ancient Greek → scientific coinage → English
- First recorded
- 1835
The same roots elsewhere
Other languages reached for exactly the same Greek pieces.
Same family
pyritepyrepyromaniaempyrean
In a sentence
A magnet picked the pyrrhotite grains straight out of the crushed sample.