apatite

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See also: Apatite

English

WOTD – 30 July 2021

Etymology

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

Noun

apatite (countable and uncountable, plural apatites)

  1. (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, and also produced biologically in bones and teeth.
    • 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, →OCLC, 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.

Usage notes

Not to be confused with appetite.

Derived terms

Translations

References

  1. ^ A G 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, 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 , 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 deceiver.
  2. ^ 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, 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. ”
  3. ^ Compare “apatite, n.”, in OED Online Paid subscription required⁠, Oxford: Oxford University Press, June 2018; “apatite, n.”, in Lexico, Dictionary.com; Oxford University Press, 2019–2022.

Further reading

Italian

Pronunciation

  • IPA(key): /a.paˈti.te/
  • Rhymes: -ite
  • Hyphenation: a‧pa‧tì‧te

Noun

apatite f (plural apatiti)

  1. (mineralogy) apatite

Derived terms

Further reading

  • apatite in Treccani.it – Vocabolario Treccani on line, Istituto dell'Enciclopedia Italiana

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