kersantite
noun · first attested 1851
The same stone carved into Brittany's roadside calvaries became an international rock name.
A mica lamprophyre in which plagioclase exceeds alkali feldspar and biotite is the main dark mineral.
Record
- Relationship
- Named from the place
- Confidence
- Well attestedThe place link is the standard scholarly account.
- Attested
- 1851
- 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
Loperhet
- In English
kersantite
Achille Delesse defined kersantite in 1851 for the dark dike rock at Kersanton, a hamlet in Loperhet on the Rade de Brest in Finistère. Breton sculptors had quarried kersanton stone for centuries because it cuts cleanly and weathers slowly, which is why the parish calvaries of Finistère still hold their detail. The term is now standard for that class of lamprophyre wherever it occurs.