amianthus

English

Etymology

From Ancient Greek ἀμίαντος (amíantos, “undefiled”), from ἀ- (a-, “not”) + μιαίνω (miaínō, “I defile”).

Noun

amianthus (usually uncountable, plural amianthuses)

  1. A type of asbestos with long, soft, thin fibers.
    • 1665, Robert Hooke, Micrographia, section I:
      the Microscope can afford us hundreds of Instances of Points many thousand times sharper: such as […] the ends of the stiriæ or small parallelipipeds of Amianthus […]

Derived terms

Translations

Further reading
  • David Barthelmy (1997–2024) “Amianthus”, in Webmineral Mineralogy Database.
  • “amianthus”, in Mindat.org‎, Hudson Institute of Mineralogy, 2000–2024.
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