‖ pyrites
(pɪˈraɪtiːz)
Pl. (rare) † pyˈritæ. Also 6 pirrites.
[L. pyrītēs (Pliny) fire-stone, flint, pyrites, a. Gr. πυρῑ́της ‘of or in fire’ (f. πῦρ fire), πυρίτης (sc. λίθος) ‘a mineral which strikes fire, the copper pyrites of mineralogists’ (L. & Sc.).
1668 Charleton Onomast. 301 Pyrites (ita dictus, vel quod ex eo ignis excutiatur; vel quod ignei sit coloris) Arabibus Marcasita et Zeq nigrum.]
† 1. In early use, vaguely, a ‘fire-stone’ or mineral capable of being used for striking fire. Obs.
Formerly the subject of fabulous statements.
| 1588 Greene Alcida Wks. (Grosart) IX. 45 As the stone Pyrites once set on fire burneth in the water. 1610 Healey St. Aug. Citie of God xxi. v. (1620) 788 The Persian Pyrites pressed hard in the hand burneth it, whereupon it hath the name. 1706 Phillips (ed. 6), Pyritis, a precious Stone, which burns the Fingers, if one holds it hard. 1750 Leonardus' Mirr. Stones 220 In a large Sense, all Stones that strike Fire may be called Pyrites. 1796 Kirwan Elem. Min. (ed. 2) II. 75 Pyrites is a name antiently given to any Metallic compound that gave fire with steel, exhaling at the same time, a Sulphurious or Arsenical smell. |
2. In modern use: Either of the two common sulphides of iron (FeS2), pyrite and marcasite, also called distinctively iron pyrites; also, the double sulphide of copper and iron (Cu2S.Fe2S3), chalcopyrite or copper pyrites.
Used also generically to include many related sulphides and arsenides of iron, cobalt, nickel, etc., or of iron with another metal; e.g. arsenical p., including Leucopyrite FeAs2, and Mispickel FeAs2. FeS2; capillary p., native sulphide of nickel = millerite2; magnetic p., Fe7S8 = pyrrhotite; spear p., white iron p., varieties of marcasite; tin p., Cu2S(SnS3.Fe2S3); variegated p., FeS.2Cu2S, = erubescite. Also cobalt, cockscomb, hepatic Pyrites.
| [1555 Eden Decades 133 margin, These colers or floures are cauled Marchesites, Pyrites.] 1567 J. Maplet Gr. Forest 17 b, Pirrites is a kinde of stone, yealow, like to the fire his flame. 1601 Holland Pliny II. 588 There is another fire stone going vnder the name of Pyrites or Marcasin, that resembleth brasse ore in the mine. 1694 Slare in Phil. Trans. XVIII. 218 He..engrossed all the Pyrites or Copperas-stone to himself. 1748 Sir J. Hill Hist. Fossils 615 The most common of all the species of striated Pyritæ. 1794 Sullivan View Nat. I. 381 The heated Bath waters..owe their origin to the contact of common water with pyritæ, whose composition is iron, sulphur, and the vitriolic principle. 1839 Darwin Voy. Nat. xii. (1852) 260 The Chilian miners were so convinced that copper pyrites contained not a particle of copper, that [etc.]. 1870 Yeats Nat. Hist. Comm. 354 Pyrites sometimes contains gold, and it is then called auriferous pyrites. 1880 Dawkins Early Man x. 358 Fire was obtained in the Bronze age by striking a flint flake against a piece of iron pyrites. 1886 Encycl. Brit. XX. 128/2 By modern mineralogists the term ‘pyrites’ has been extended to a number of metallic sulphides, and it is..now used rather as a group-name than as the specific designation of a mineral. |
| attrib. and Comb. 1864 Jrnl. Chem. Soc. XVII. 118 The flue-dust of Pyrites-burners. 1896 Daily News 15 Aug. 11/1 Pyrites lodes..carrying over an ounce of gold to the ton, are now being opened up. |