Derivations of Mineral Names. 137 
It is known to be a fact that basanites was applied to true basalt. 
Agricola (1546) uses the word for an undoubted basalt; Gessner 
(1565) derives it from Gr. pasavw, and applies it to true basalt ;! 
Kentmann (1565) calls it “ black marble,” and uses the word in 
the same way ;? Basanite is described as “black stone” by Leon- 
ardus (1610), and he speaks of “ Bazanites sive Basaltem lapis ;” 
Cæsius quotes it as “iron-colored” marble, in 1636; in 1743 (Berg- 
werck’s Lexicon) it was regarded as a dark-grey marble (“ schwarz- 
grauer Marmor”); within the last fifty years Basant and Basalt 
have been used synonymously in various German publications. 
This confusion of he. ss? terms may bear out the idea of an ay 
“typographical error.’ 
CELADONITE is formed from the Fr. celadon=sea-green. The 
origin of this word, in its quoted meaning, seems to be a curious 
one. Gr. Kejadwy first occurs in the “ Iliad” (880 B.c.) as the 
name of a river; subsequently it is repeatedly used in the same 
way by Meleagros, Strabo a. o. ; Ovid incidentally applied it, in the 
form of Celadon, as the names of two men, one from the mouth of 
the Nile, the other from the mountains of Thessaly. The word is — 
derived from Gr. xeAadoc¢=rushing noise, like that of rushing water. 
In 1610 (1616?) a French novelist, D’Urfée, wrote a pastoral 
romance, “ Astrée,” in which he gave the name of Celadon, bor- 
rowed from Ovid, to an inexperienced, insipid lover: whence the 
idea of greenness (Dana). Spanish (?), French and German all 
contain the noun Celadon or Seladon=verdant lover (G. blöder 
Schäfer), and the adjective=sea-green. In Engl. the latter has 
been amplified to celandine. In the acceptation of verdant lover, 
the word seems to have come from the Spanish rather than from 
the French, but it is difficult to arrive at its meaning for any given 
date. There was an ancient river Celadon in Spain, whence the 
word may have been introduced into that language. Thompson 
uses the name, in 1727, in “ The Seasons,” for Amelia’s lover. 
Dana gives the derivation from Gr. xehadov=burning ; others 
from 7¢ic<0oveov—=swallow-wort. But neither seems to apply. 
AMETHYST js composed of Gr. a privativum and pedvw, I am 
!“ His omnibus consideratis non immerito Misenus Babavw, vel Ba- 
saltes Misenus dici potest, EIN MEISSNISCHER PROBIRSTEIN.”’ 
*“ Marmor nigra aig eet ine colore et duricie, hoc Bisalten 
nominat Agricola; nos Basal: 
