Chalcedonise

Part of speech: verb

Definitions

1. To transform a mineral or rock into chalcedony, a fine-grained variety of quartz with a waxy luster
2. To alter a substance so that it takes on the fibrous, microcrystalline structure typical of the quartz mineral chalcedony
3. To cause silica or another material to crystallize into the compact, translucent form known as chalcedony

Etymology: Chalcedony is a fine-grained, waxy form of quartz, and its name likely points to a city: Chalcedon, an ancient Greek settlement on the Asian shore of the Bosporus, now Kadıköy in Istanbul. The stone's name passed into Late Latin as "chalcedonius" and then into English, and the link to the city is the usual explanation, though it is not fully certain. Chalcedonise is formed from that noun with the verb ending "-ise", and it is a technical term from geology rather than everyday English. In mineralogy, the verb describes a process in which silica, deposited from solution, gradually fills or replaces another material, turning it into chalcedony. Fossil wood and the cavities of volcanic rock often show this change. The noun "chalcedonisation" names the same process. Because the verb is built on the stone's name, it is a later technical formation and does not appear in classical sources.

Synonyms: chalcedonize