Cyclolith

Part of speech: noun

Definitions

1. A round, flattened fossil coral or similar stony object, often found in ancient limestone deposits
2. A disc-shaped petrified organism of the kind that lived as a free-lying coral on ancient sea floors
3. A fossilized, flat, circular stony body resembling a coin, formed from a marine organism long ago

Etymology: Cyclolith is a compound built from two Greek elements. The first, "kyklos", means "circle" or "wheel", and gives English the "cyclo-" in words like cycle and cyclone. The second, "lithos", means "stone", the same root behind "monolith" and "lithography." Put together, the word denotes a stone shaped like a circle or ring. The formation is a plain, transparent one: a Greek combining form joined to a Greek noun, following the pattern English scientists and writers have long used to name objects and minerals. Because the word is a technical coinage built from classical parts, it belongs to the vocabulary of description rather than to ancient usage, and no ancient Greek speaker would have recognised it as a single term.