‖ schiller Min.
(ˈʃɪlə(r))
[Ger., play of colours, glistening brightness.
The Ger. word has been used by English entomologists in the literal sense: 1835 J. Duncan Beetles 87 The elegant tribe of Cetonidæ..are generally of a fine green, often accompanied with a delicate schiller or play of colour.]
1. In certain terms adapted from Ger., denoting minerals or rocks having a shining surface, as schiller asbestos, schiller rock, schiller-stone; also schiller-spar.
| 1804 Jameson Syst. Min. I. 428 Schiller Stone. Schiller⁓stein.—Werner. 1862 Dana Man. Min. 146 Picrolite, Schiller asbestus. A fibrous serpentine, of an olive-green color, constituting seams in serpentine. 1862 Schiller rock [see schillerite]. |
2. A peculiar lustre characteristic of certain minerals, as hypersthene. Also attrib.
| 1885 Judd in Q. Jrnl. Geol. Soc. XLI. 383 The peculiar phenomenon expressed by the term ‘Schiller’. 1888 Teall Brit. Petrogr. 446 Schiller-plane, a plane in a crystal in which occur the enclosures giving rise to the phenomenon of schiller. |