apatite
See also: Apatite
English
WOTD – 30 July 2021
Etymology
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Samples of apatite from Madagascar, Canada, and Afghanistan.
From international scientific vocabulary, from German Apatit (“apatite”). Apatit was coined by the German geologist Abraham Gottlob Werner (1749–1817), as follows: Ancient Greek ᾰ̓πᾰ́τη (apátē, “deceit, fraud”) (as it is often mistaken for other minerals) + German -it (suffix forming nouns denoting minerals or rocks; cognate with English -ite)[1]; the German word was first used in a 1786 book.[2][3] Regarding minerals that were named for being deceptive and thus confused with others, compare also fool's gold.
Pronunciation
- (Received Pronunciation) IPA(key): /ˈæpətaɪt/
Audio (Southern England) (file) - (General American) IPA(key): /ˈæpəˌtaɪt/
- Homophone: appetite (GA pronunciation)
- Hyphenation: apat‧ite
Noun
apatite (countable and uncountable, plural apatites)
- (mineralogy) A calcium fluoride phosphate of variable composition, sometimes used in the manufacture of fertilizer, as a gemstone, and (in powdered form) as a pigment.
- 1967, Duncan McConnell [et al.], “Infrared Absorption of Carbonate Apatite”, in Science, volume 155, number 3762 (New Series), Washington, D.C.: American Association for the Advancement of Science, ISSN 0036-8075, OCLC 1039268034, page 608:
- We had prepared, by precipitation methods, finely divided crystalline apatites that were similar in crystal size and x-ray diffraction profile to bone apatite.
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Usage notes
Not to be confused with appetite.
Derived terms
- apatitic
- bioapatite
- carbapatite
- carbonatoapatite
- chlorapatite
- fluorapatite
- hydroxyapatite
- manganapatite
Translations
calcium fluoride phosphate of variable composition
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References
- A[braham] G[ottlob] Werner (1788), “Geschichte, Karakteristik, und kurze chemische Untersuchung des Apatits [History, Characteristics, and Brief Chemical Investigation of Apatite]”, in Bergmännisches Journal [Miners’ Journal], volume I, Freyberg: Alexander Bilhelm Köhler; Grazischen Buchhandlung, OCLC 503826270, pages 84–85:
- Ich wies hierauf diesem Foßile, als einer eigenen Gattung, sogleich eine Stelle in dem Kalkgeschlechte an; und ertheilte ihm, – weil es bisher alle Mineralogen in seiner Bestimmung irre geführt hatte, – den Namen Apatit, den ich von dem griechischen Worte απατάω (decipio) bildete, und welcher so viel as Trügling sagt.
- I then immediately assigned to this fossil [i.e., material obtained from underground], as a separate type, a place in the lime lineage; and conferred on it, — because it had previously led astray all mineralogists in its classification — the name apatite, which I formed from the Greek word απατάω (I deceive), and which says as much as [the word] deceiver.
- Ich wies hierauf diesem Foßile, als einer eigenen Gattung, sogleich eine Stelle in dem Kalkgeschlechte an; und ertheilte ihm, – weil es bisher alle Mineralogen in seiner Bestimmung irre geführt hatte, – den Namen Apatit, den ich von dem griechischen Worte απατάω (decipio) bildete, und welcher so viel as Trügling sagt.
- Carl Abraham Gerhard (1786), “Erster Anhang [First Addendum]”, in Grundriß des Mineralsystems zu Vorlesungen [Outline of the Mineral Systems for Lectures], Berlin: Christian Friedrich Himburg, OCLC 11933536, page 281: “Von einigen noch nicht genau bestimmten und ganz neu entdeckten Mineralien. Ich rechne hierzu folgende drei Körper: 1. Den Apatit des Herrn Werners. […] [On some still not precisely determined and quite recently discovered minerals. I count among these the following three substances: 1. the apatite of Mr. Werner. […]]”
- Compare “apatite, n.”, in OED Online
, Oxford, Oxfordshire: Oxford University Press, June 2018; “apatite, n.”, in Lexico, Dictionary.com; Oxford University Press, 2019–2022.
Further reading
apatite on Wikipedia.Wikipedia - “apatite”, in Mindat.org, Hudson Institute of Mineralogy, 2000–2023.
- David Barthelmy (1997–2023), “Apatite”, in Webmineral Mineralogy Database.
Italian
Pronunciation
- IPA(key): /a.paˈti.te/
- Rhymes: -ite
- Hyphenation: a‧pa‧tì‧te
Noun
apatite f (plural apatiti)
- (mineralogy) apatite
Derived terms
- clorapatite
- fluorapatite
- idrossiapatite
- ossiapatite
Further reading
- apatite in Treccani.it – Vocabolario Treccani on line, Istituto dell'Enciclopedia Italiana
Anagrams
- patiate