syenite

Meanings

1. 1
   noun

   a coarse-grained intrusive igneous rock composed mainly of alkali feldspar with minerals such as hornblende or biotite and little or no quartz

   Rounded blocks of gray syenite protruded from the surrounding soil.

Borrowed through French syenite from Latin Syenites lapis, 'stone of Syene.' Syene was the ancient name of Aswan in Egypt, where a related ornamental stone was quarried, although the historical stone was not always syenite in the modern geological sense.

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