oldhamiten.
/ˈəʊldəmʌɪt/, U.S. /ˈoʊldəˌmaɪt/ Mineralogy.
A mineral of the galena group, a cubic sulphide of calcium, CaS, that occurs as transparent pale brown spherules, esp. in meteorites.
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oldhamite1863
1863 Rep. Brit. Assoc. Advancem. Sci. 1862 App. 11 In it [sc. an aërolite] Mr. Maskelyne has detected a mineral to which he gives the name of Oldhamite—a yellow transparent body of cubic crystallization.
1870 N. Story-Maskelyne in Philos. Trans. (Royal Soc.) 160 195 I gave the name of Oldhamite to this mineral in 1862... Oldhamite is a pale chestnut brown and, where pure, transparent mineral occurring in the Busti aërolite..in small nearly round spherules imbedded in enstatite or augite.
1915 Proc. National Acad. Sci. U.S.A. 1 308 The mere presence of a soluble calcium compound [in a stony meteorite] does not necessarily prove the presence of oldhamite.
1944 C. Palache et al. Dana's Syst. Mineral. (ed. 7) I. 200 The Pb members [of the galena group] are metallic of high luster, whereas alabandite and the rare oldhamite are distinctly nonmetallic.
1991 Ann. Rep. Brit. Geol. Surv. 1990–91 (BNC) 35 Several rare mineral phases have been identified including oldhamite.., previously known only from meteorites and blast-furnace slag.
This entry has been updated (OED Third Edition, March 2004; most recently modified version published online March 2022).
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