ceyssatite
noun · first attested 1914
The name for a French village became a general term for the diatom earths of four neighboring departments.
A fine opaline diatomite from the Auvergne, made of the silica skeletons of fossil diatoms.
Record
- Relationship
- Named from the place
- Confidence
- ProbableThe conventional story is likely, with caveats.
- Attested
- 1914
- Part of speech
- noun
Explanations here are written for this atlas. Dictionary text is not copied; the sources are linked so the claim can be checked.
- Step 1
Ceyssat
- In English
ceyssatite
Ceyssat is a commune in the Puy-de-Dome, in the volcanic Chaine des Puys. By 1914 the name had spread well past the village itself: a survey in the Bulletin de la Societe francaise de Mineralogie that year covered the ceyssatites of the Ardeche, the Puy-de-Dome, the Cantal and the Haute-Loire. The material is diatomite, amorphous silica accumulated from dead diatoms in crater lakes.