amianthus

English

Etymology

From Ancient Greek ἀμίαντος (amíantos, “undefiled”), from ἀ- (a-, “not”) + μιαίνω (miaínō, “I defile”).

Noun

amianthus (usually uncountable, plural amianthuses)

1. A type of asbestos with long, soft, thin fibers.
   • 1665, Robert Hooke, Micrographia, section I:

     the Microscope can afford us hundreds of Instances of Points many thousand times sharper: such as […] the ends of the stiriæ or small parallelipipeds of Amianthus […]

Derived terms

• amianthiform
• amianthoid

 

Translations

a type of asbestos with long, soft, thin fibers

• Catalan: amiant (ca)
• Polish: amiant (pl) m
• Portuguese: amianto (pt) m
• Spanish: amianto (es) m

Further reading

• David Barthelmy (1997–2024) “Amianthus”, in Webmineral Mineralogy Database.
• “amianthus”, in Mindat.org‎^[1], Hudson Institute of Mineralogy, 2000–2024.