Kaolinise

Part of speech: verb

Definitions

1. Transforming feldspar or other rock into the fine white clay known as kaolin through natural weathering or chemical change
2. Turning a mineral-rich rock into kaolin, the white clay used in porcelain, through the breakdown of its original structure
3. Altering a rock so that it becomes kaolin, a soft white clay prized for making china and paper coatings

Etymology: Kaolin is the white clay used in porcelain, named after Gaoling, a hill near Jingdezhen in China where it was mined. The word reached English through European trade with China, and it was the clay itself, not the verb, that carried the Chinese name westward. "Kaolinise" is simply kaolin plus the suffix "-ise", a formation that English has used for centuries to turn nouns into verbs meaning "to make into, or treat with, the thing named." So to kaolinise something is to convert it into kaolin, typically by weathering or chemical alteration of feldspar-rich rock, which turns hard granite-like material into soft white clay. The verb follows the geological process: the clay is the product, and the change of substance is what the suffix describes. The suffix itself reaches English through Middle French "-iser" from Late Latin "-izare", which in turn was borrowed from Ancient Greek "-izein". The spelling with "-ize" is the older and more common form in many dictionaries, while "-ise" is the British variant.

Synonyms: kaolinize