Earth & SkyGreek → English
Stibnite
/ˈstɪbnaɪt/noun
Antimony sulphide, a soft steel-grey mineral in long bladed crystals, the chief ore of antimony.
The Greek roots
στίβι
stíbi
antimony eye paint
-ίτης
-ítēs
connected with (mineral suffix)
Literally: “the stibi stone”
The story of the word
Ground antimony sulphide was painted round the eyes long before anyone catalogued it as a mineral, and the Greek στίβι is generally traced back to an Egyptian word for that black cosmetic. Latin reshaped it as stibium, which is why antimony's chemical symbol is Sb and matches nothing in its English name. The Ichinokawa mine in Japan produced blades over half a metre long, and museum labels still fight over who owns the best of them.
- How it travelled
- Egyptian → Ancient Greek → Latin → English
- First recorded
- 19th century
In a sentence
A spray of stibnite crystals filled the whole cabinet drawer.
Most of the world's stibnite is now mined in China.