Definitions

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

  • noun A mineral variety of andalusite with carbonaceous impurities regularly arranged along the longer axis of the crystal.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • noun A variety of andalusite, peculiar in the tessel-lated appearance which it presents when cut transversely and polished. The dark portions are due to symmetrically arranged impurities in the crystal. Also called macle.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • noun (Min.) A variety of andalusite; -- called also macle. The tessellated appearance of a cross section is due to the symmetrical arrangement of impurities in the crystal.

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

  • noun mineralogy An aluminosilicate mineral having carbon inclusions, a variety of andalusite.

Etymologies

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

[From Greek khīastos, crossed, past participle of khīazein, to mark with an X; see chiasma.]

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

Ancient Greek marked with a letter chi + -lite. See chiasm. So called from the resemblance of the crosscuts of its crystals to the Greek letter chi.

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