Earth & SkyGreek → English
Staurolite
/ˈstɔːrəlaɪt/noun
A brown metamorphic mineral whose crystals often grow through each other in a cross shape.
The Greek roots
σταυρός
staurós
stake, upright post
λίθος
líthos
stone
Literally: “cross stone”
The story of the word
Two crystals of staurolite interpenetrate at close to a right angle and the result looks so much like a cross that Appalachian folklore calls the stones fairy crosses and sells them on strings. Delamétherie named the mineral in 1792 from σταυρός and λίθος. In classical Greek a σταυρός is a stake driven into the ground, a palisade timber; the meaning everyone now hears in it arrives only with Roman execution and the Gospels.
- How it travelled
- Ancient Greek → scientific coinage → English
- First recorded
- early 19th century
Same family
lithographymonolithmegalithlithosphere
In a sentence
A staurolite cross came out of the stream gravel almost clean.
Staurolite in the schist tells you roughly how hot and deep the rock has been.