[Rockhounds] ite ending of minerals

[Rik Dillen]

That's it indeed !
Grts,

Rik DILLEN 
Doornstraat 15,  B-9170 Sint-Gillis-Waas 
Belgium 
E-mail rik.dillen at skynet.be 
Homepage : http://users.skynet.be/rik.dillen 
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-----Original Message-----
From: rockhounds-bounces at lists.drizzle.com [mailto:rockhounds-bounces at lists.drizzle.com] On Behalf Of Kreigh Tomaszewski
Sent: Friday, November 23, 2007 10:29 PM
To: Rockhounds at drizzle.com: A mailing list for rock and gem collectors
Subject: Re: [Rockhounds] ite ending of minerals

The suffix -ite is derived from the greek word lithos (from its
adjectival form -ites) meaning rock or stone.

Kreigh



DonH wrote:
> 
> Carolyn Reynard wrote:
> > I know we have discussed the reason most minerals end in... ite.  However, I
> > have failed to enter the reason in my memory bank which I quickly noted when
> > one of our 6 year old junior rockhounds asked me, "why do all minerals end
> > in ite?".  Please help!
> 
> Hi,
> 
> An explanation tailored to a 6-year-old would be that there was an
> international commission established in the 1960s to standardize mineral
> naming.  However, minerals named by scientists before then often used
> combinations of Greek and Latin root words and suffixes.  So of the more
> than 4,000 named species, some have the -ite suffix and some do not,
> depending if they were named after the commission decided on the rules.
>   At this point you do *not* want to confuse the child by saying that a
> few non-compliant names, such as hafnon (should have been disapproved
> and suggested as hafnite), have been approved by the commission.
> 
> This may raise the question of why scientists like to use Greek and
> Latin names for all sorts of things, which is a long tradition... I'll
> let you explain that one. And explain why many prominent scientists in
> the old days Latinized their names... the mind boggles.
> 
> The new Shorter Oxford English Dictionary gives several definitions for
> -ite, depending on context, one of which is that it is the suffix of a
> mineral name, with references to the same suffix in zoology, chemistry,
> paleontology, etc.  The suffix corresponds to similar Latin and Greek
> terms.  Don't quote me on this, but it might mean "composed of" or
> "being a member of."  I learned it at one time, but forgot, and can't
> find the authoritative definition.  Until we can come up with a sound
> definition of the suffix, it would be appropriate to tell the child that
> it is a suffix commonly used in the sciences to denote species and
> chemical compounds and is derived from Greek or Latin.
> 
> I hope this helps a little.
> 
> Best,
> Don
> 
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