Petrographer

Part of speech: noun

Definitions

1. A scientist who specializes in describing and classifying rocks, especially through microscopic examination of thin sections
2. A specialist in the study of rock composition, texture and origin, often working in a geology laboratory or in the field
3. Someone trained to analyze the mineral makeup and structure of rocks in order to understand how they formed

Etymology: Petrographer is a modern scientific coinage, built in English from two Greek-derived parts: "petro-", from the Greek "pétrā" meaning rock or stone, and "-grapher", meaning one who writes or describes. The Greek "pétrā" passed into Latin as "petra" and from there into English, where "petro-" serves as a combining form for rock-related terms. Petrographers are scientists who describe and classify rocks, typically by examining their composition and structure under the microscope. The "-grapher" ending is the same element found in words such as "geographer" and "photographer," where the sense is of recording or describing something. A petrographer, then, is literally a rock-describer, someone who writes down the nature of stone. Because the word was assembled from classical parts rather than inherited from ancient texts, the ancient Greeks had no word of this exact form.

Synonyms: petrologist