Earth & SkyGreek → English
Sepiolite
/ˈsiːpiəlaɪt/noun
A soft white porous clay mineral, known to pipe carvers as meerschaum.
The Greek roots
σηπία
sēpía
cuttlefish
λίθος
líthos
stone
Literally: “cuttlefish stone”
The story of the word
The mineral is light, chalky and porous, so nineteenth-century mineralogists named it after the cuttlefish, whose internal bone has exactly that look and feel. σηπία gives English sepia twice over: the animal, and the brown ink drawn from it, which is why old photographs are described by the colour of a squid's defence. Most of the world's supply still comes from around Eskişehir in Turkey, where it is dug out damp and soft enough to carve with a knife.
- How it travelled
- Ancient Greek → scientific coinage → English
- First recorded
- 19th century
Same family
sepiamonolithlithographymegalith
In a sentence
The sepiolite pipe had darkened to amber after forty years of use.
Cat litter is mostly sepiolite or bentonite, depending on the brand.