Alabandite

Part of speech: noun

Definitions

1. A black, metallic-lustred mineral composed of manganese and sulfur, found in certain hydrothermal ore deposits
2. An opaque dark mineral consisting of manganese sulfide, valued by mineralogists for its distinctive crystal form
3. A rare sulfide mineral of manganese that appears black and forms in hydrothermal veins and metamorphic rocks

Etymology: Alabandite is named after a city, not a person or a process. The mineral is a sulfide of manganese, and it takes its name from Alabanda, an ancient city in what is now Turkey. The city's Greek name, Alábanda, is the source of the mineral's name, so the word works much like "Sardinian" or "Corinthian" in that it points back to a place. The link is a little odd, though. Alabanda was a town in Caria, in the south-west of Asia Minor, and it had no particular connection to manganese mining. The name was attached to the mineral because the ore was associated with that region, and mineralogists of the period often named new minerals after the places where specimens were found or where they were first described. A reader who expects a classical concept behind the word will find instead a modern scientific label that simply carries the name of an ancient town.

Synonyms: alabandine