‖ keffekill Min. Obs. rare.
Also kiffe-, kiefe-.
[‘Said to mean the earth of Keffe or Kaffe, the town of the Crimea from which it was shipped’ (Chester, Dict. Names Min.). Perh. repr. Pers. kef-i-gil ‘foam of clay’; but the classical Pers. name is kef-i-daryā ‘foam of the sea’ (J. T. Platts).]
= meerschaum.
| [1758 Cronstedt Mineralogie 79 states, that the Keffekil Tartarorum was used by the Tartars as soap.] 1784 Kirwan Elem. Min. 59 Meershaum of the Germans, Keffekill. 1796 Ibid. (ed. 2) I. 145 Keffekill or myrsen..is said to be when recently dug of a yellow colour, and as tenacious as cheese or wax. 1807 T. Thomson Chem. (ed. 3) II. 477 To the first of these classes belongs the ruby; to the second, steatites and kiffekille. |