chabazite

Meaning

Noun

• Any of several zeolite minerals that occur in basaltic rocks.

Origin

• From French chabasie, coined by Louis-Augustin Bosc d'Antic from Ancient Greek χαβάζιος, apparently an error for χαλάζιος (which is probably from χάλαζα, due to looking like a hailstone), one of twenty species of stones mentioned in the poem ascribed to Orpheus.