oolith
/ˈoʊəˌlɪθ/
Word Rarity
Very rare
Frequency: Zipf frequency 0.00 in modern English
9
Scrabble Score
6
Letters
2
Syllables
5
Unique Chars
Meaning
noun
A spherical granule of which oolite is composed, formed by concentric accretion of thin layers of a mineral (usually calcium carbonate (limestone) but also others such as dolomite and silica) around a core; an ooid.
noun
Etymology
Borrowed from Late Latin oolithus; the Latin word was coined by the German doctor and mineralogist Franz Ernst Brückmann (1697–1753) as a translation of German Rogenstein (“oolite”) (Rogen (“fish roe”) + Stein (“stone”)). Oolithus is derived from Ancient Greek ᾠόν (ōión, “egg; seed”) (possibly ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *h₂ew- (“to clothe oneself, dress; to be dressed”), in the sense of a bird being clothed in feathers) + λῐ́θος (lĭ́thos, “a stone; stone as a substance”) (see further at that entry), analysable as oo- + -lith.
Origin
Word Breakdown
Regional Pronunciation
- American English: /ˈoʊəˌlɪθ/
- British English: /ˈəʊəlɪθ/