Chabazie

Part of speech: noun

Definitions

1. A white or colourless zeolite mineral consisting of hydrated calcium aluminium silicate, often found filling cavities in volcanic rock
2. A hydrated calcium aluminosilicate mineral of the zeolite family that typically forms rhombohedral crystals in basalt and other igneous rocks
3. Named for a porous silicate mineral belonging to the zeolite group, usually found lining vesicles and fissures in lava flows

Etymology: Chabazite, the mineral you asked about, belongs to the zeolite family, a group of hydrated aluminium silicates with open crystal frameworks that can take in and release water. The mineral's name revives an ancient one. The Greek "chabazios" was the name of a stone that the Roman writer Pliny the Elder recorded in his "Natural History." When modern mineralogists named the mineral, they borrowed that old Greek-derived name, which passed into French as "chabasie" and from there into English. The word therefore reaches us through French and Latin, not directly from Greek. Its modern meaning is strictly technical, referring to a specific crystalline silicate and nothing else.