pyrite

Meanings

1. 1
   noun

   a common brass-yellow mineral consisting of iron disulfide, often mistaken for gold

   Bright cubes of pyrite glittered in the dark shale.

2. 2
   noun

   historical or collective: any of several metallic sulfide minerals with a brassy luster, especially in names such as copper pyrites

   Nineteenth-century miners used copper pyrites for the ore now called chalcopyrite.

From Old French pyrite and Latin pyrites, from Greek pyrites lithos, 'stone of fire,' built on pyr, 'fire.' The mineral was so named because it can produce sparks when struck against steel; its goldlike color later inspired the nickname fool's gold.

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