ProbableNamed from the place
tripolite
noun · first attested 17th century
Every jeweler's tripoli buffing bar carries the name of a North African port.
A porous siliceous rock, largely diatomaceous, used powdered as a polishing abrasive.
Record
- Relationship
- Named from the place
- Confidence
- ProbableThe conventional story is likely, with caveats.
- Attested
- 17th century
- 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
Tripoli
- In English
tripolite
The abrasive earth reached European workshops as an import from Tripoli, and the trade name stuck to the material rather than to any one quarry. Some dictionaries hedge between Tripoli in Libya and Tripoli in Lebanon, but the North African trade is the usual attribution. It is now mostly quarried in Missouri, Tennessee and Georgia and still sold under the old name alongside rottenstone.