schorl Min.
(ʃɔːl)
Forms: 8 schoerl, 8–9 shirl, shorl, schorl.
[a. G. schörl, in the 18th c. also schierle, schirl, schürl, schurl, schurell, schirlich, schörlich, schorlet, in 16th c. schrul; of obscure origin. From Ger. are F. schorl, Sw. skörl, Da. skj{obar}rl.]
Tourmaline, esp. the black variety.
Formerly applied loosely to various other minerals, esp. with prefixed adj., as in white schorl, a name for albite, blue schorl, hauyne, etc.
| [1761 Da Costa Tourmalin in Phil. Trans. LII. 446 The miners of Germany vulgarly call them Schirl, and sometimes our English miners name them Cockle and Call.] 1779 Phil. Trans. LXIX. 24 It is evident that skirl contains nearly as much earth of allum as the Cornish porcellane clay. 1784 Cullen tr. Bergman's Phys. & Chem. Ess. II. 125 A form which, even among the schoerls themselves, is extremely rare. 1811 Pinkerton Petral. II. 132 This rock is chiefly composed of the common black shorl, the black tourmaline of Haüy. 1855 Leifchild Cornwall 72 Schorl may be observed between and approaching the joints of granite in many places, as, for example, near the Logan stone. 1894 Baring-Gould Deserts S. France I. 106 These are sandstone, schorls, and clays. |
b. Comb., as
schorl-rock (see
quot. 1882); so
schorl-schist.
| 1811 Pinkerton Petral. II. 132 *Shorl rock. 1838 Lyell Elem. Geol. 201 Schorl rock and schorly granite. 1882 Geikie Text Bk. Geol. ii. ii. §6. 134 Tourmaline rock or schorl-rock, is a crystalline aggregate of quartz and black tourmaline or schorl. |
| 1885 Ibid. ii. ii. §7 (ed. 2) 131 Tourmaline-schist (*Schorl-schist). |