hemimorphic, a. Cryst.
(hɛmɪˈmɔːfɪk)
[f. hemi- + Gr. µορϕή shape + -ic.]
Of a crystal: Having unlike planes or modifications at the ends of the same axis. So hemiˈmorph, a hemimorphic crystal. hemiˈmorphism, the property of being hemimorphic. hemiˈmorphous a. = hemimorphic. ˈhemimorphy = hemimorphism.
| 1864 Webster, Hemimorphic. 1868 Dana Min. (ed. 5) 407 Calamine..Orthorhombic; hemimorphic-hemihedral. 1878 Lawrence tr. Cotta's Rocks Class. 32 Tourmaline is Rhombohedral, eminently hemi-morphous. 1879 Rutley Study Rocks x. 138 The crystals when heated and freely suspended, exhibit polar electricity, a phenomenon which usually accompanies hemimorphism. 1886 Syd. Soc. Lex., Hemimorphy. 1895 Story-Maskelyne Crystallogr. §140 Hemimorphism is the term for a particular case of haplohedral mero-symmetry. One-half or, it may be, one-fourth of the faces of the original form are present in the hemimorphic form: but these all lie on one side of a systematic plane, the symmetral character of which is in abeyance. Ibid. §272 Hemimorphous forms are not rare in the Hexagonal system, but they occur most often as hemimorphs of hemisymmetrical types of crystal. |