Earth & SkyGreek → English
Spodumene
/ˈspɒdjuːmiːn/noun
A lithium aluminium silicate mineral, the main ore of lithium and the source of the gems kunzite and hiddenite.
The Greek roots
σποδούμενος
spodoúmenos
being burnt to ashes
σποδός
spodós
ashes, embers
Literally: “turning to ash”
The story of the word
José Bonifácio de Andrada named it around 1800 from a Swedish specimen, for the ash-grey colour it takes when heated. That dull name now sits behind most of the world's battery supply: Arfvedson identified lithium in petalite in 1817 and confirmed it in spodumene and lepidolite, and spodumene is what the hard-rock lithium mines of Australia dig for. Its gem varieties are far from ashy, kunzite pink, hiddenite green.
- How it travelled
- Ancient Greek → scientific coinage → English
- First recorded
- c. 1800
In a sentence
The pegmatite was shot through with spodumene crystals a metre long.