symon local.
(ˈsaɪmən)
[var. simmon n.1]
Name for a kind of red shale; also attrib. symon fault, an interruption of a seam of coal by shale or other material (see quots.).
| 1834–6 Prestwich in Trans. Geol. Soc. Ser. ii. (1840) V. 432 ‘Symon fault’.. is occasioned by the gradual..substitution of the coal by clay, shale, or sandstone,..the proportion of which rapidly increases, until it entirely replaces the coal. 1839 Murchison Silur. Syst. i. vii. 101 Even the coal..tapers away and disappears amid the shales and sandstones, constituting what are locally termed ‘Symonfaults’. 1881 G. F. Jackson Shropsh. Word-bk., Symon, a sort of red shale, same as Calaminca, q.v.—Colliery; M[iners'] T[erm]. |