Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • noun A blue to dark-gray variety of plagioclase feldspar that contains a higher proportion of calcium than sodium and occurs in alkaline igneous rocks.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • noun A kind of feldspar from Bytown (now Ottawa), Canada, intermediate between anorthite and labradorite.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • noun mineralogy A plagioclase feldspar, the fifth member of the Albite-Anorthite solid solution series. Bytownite is rare, and normally occurs in small grains in lime-rich igneous rocks. Clear pale yellow crystals have come from Mexico and Oregon.

Etymologies

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition

[After Bytown, former name of Ottawa, Ontario, near where a sample of the mineral was found.]

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

Bytown +‎ -ite, named for the type locality in Bytown, Canada, but this locality was later discredited. The name, however, was kept.

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