Chabazite

Part of speech: noun

Definitions

1. A rhombohedral zeolite mineral composed of hydrated calcium aluminium silicate, often found in volcanic rock cavities
2. A hydrated silicate of calcium and aluminium belonging to the zeolite group, typically occurring as small crystals in basalt
3. Chabazite is a zeolite mineral, a hydrous calcium aluminium silicate that forms glassy crystals in igneous rock vesicles

Etymology: Chabazite is a mineral, and its name comes from a mistake. In the poem attributed to Orpheus, a list of twenty precious stones includes the word "khabázios," but the name was almost certainly a copying error for "khalázios," a stone whose name connects to "khálaza," meaning hail. The stone was so called because its crystals look like hailstones. The French mineralogist Louis-Augustin Bosc d'Antic took the ancient word and turned it into the modern name "chabasie," which was then borrowed into English as "chabazite." Bosc d'Antic thus gave the mineral a name built on a misreading of an ancient text, one that has stuck ever since.