‖ liˈthanthrax Obs.
Also 7 lithanthrix, 8 lithonthrax.
[Mod.L., f. Gr. λίθ-ος stone + ἄνθραξ charcoal.]
Used as a scientific name for mineral coal (i.e. ‘coal’ in the mod. sense), in distinction from xylanthrax (charcoal).
| 1611 Speed Theat. Gt. Brit. i. xlvi. 89 The Chiefest commodity..are those Stones Linthancraces [sic: ? read lithantraces], which wee call Sea-coales. 1696 Phillips (ed. 5), Lithanthrix, a stony Coal, being a kind of Gagate. 1706 Ibid. (ed. Kersey), Lithanthrax, stony Coal, a kind of Jeat; Pit-coal, or Sea-coal. a 1728 Woodward Nat. Hist. Fossils i. (1729) I. 165 Lithonthrax, or Coal. 1802 A. Ellicott Jrnl. (1803) 24 Mines of pit coal (lithanthrax), are..inexhaustible from Pittsburgh many miles down the river. |