melatope

English

Etymology

Coined by A. Johannsen on page 420 in A Manual of Petrographic Methods McGraw-Hill 1918

Noun

melatope (plural melatopes)

1. (mineralogy, microscopy) An eye shape of concentric coloured optical fringes seen on a conoscopic interference pattern surrounding an optical axis. For biaxial minerals there are a pair of circles, like eyes.