Earth & SkyGreek → English
Schist
/ʃɪst/noun
A metamorphic rock whose mica flakes lie in parallel layers, so it splits into glittering sheets.
The Greek roots
σχιστός
skhistós
split, cleft
Literally: “split stone”
Follow a root:σχιστός1 word
The story of the word
Pliny wrote of lapis schistus, the stone that splits, and geologists revived the term in the eighteenth century through French schiste. The property is genuine: heat and pressure line up the mica crystals so completely that the rock has a grain like timber. Its root σχίζω, to cleave, also produced schism, a church split in two, and schizophrenia, coined in 1908 for a mind described as divided.
- How it travelled
- Ancient Greek → Latin → French → English
- First recorded
- 18th century
Same family
schismschizophreniashed
In a sentence
The path was cut into schist that flashed silver whenever the sun came out.