Definitions
American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
- n. A white, yellow, or gray mineral, chiefly BaCO3.
Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia
- n. Native barium carbonate. It occurs crystallized, also columnar or granular massive, and has a white, gray, or yellow color. Also called
barolite .
Wiktionary
GNU Webster's 1913
- n. (Min.) Barium carbonate occurring in white or gray six-sided twin crystals, and also in columnar or granular masses.
Etymologies
- After the English physician and mineralogist William Withering (1741-1799) in 1790. (Wiktionary)
- German Witherit, after William Withering (1741-1799), British physician. (American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition)
Examples
“Barium is somewhat more abundant than strontium, occurring in nature largely as barytes, or heavy spar (BaSO_ {4}), and witherite (BaCO_ {3}).”
“Barium occurs chiefly in the form of barytes or heavy spar, BaSO_4, and witherite, BaCO_3, and to a less extent in baryto-calcite, baryto-celestine, and various complex silicates.”
Encyclopaedia Britannica, 11th Edition, Volume 3, Part 1, Slice 3 "Banks" to "Bassoon"
“Barium chloride, BaCl_2 · 2H_2O, can be obtained by dissolving witherite in dilute hydrochloric acid, and also from heavy spar by ignition in a reverberatory furnace with a mixture of coal, limestone and calcium chloride, the barium chloride being extracted from the fused mass by water, leaving a residue of insoluble calcium sulphide.”
Encyclopaedia Britannica, 11th Edition, Volume 3, Part 1, Slice 3 "Banks" to "Bassoon"
“Barium carbonate, BaCO_3, occurs rather widely distributed as witherite (_q. v._), and may be prepared by the addition of barium chloride to a hot solution of ammonium carbonate, when it is precipitated as a dense white powder of specific gravity 4.3; almost insoluble in water.”
Encyclopaedia Britannica, 11th Edition, Volume 3, Part 1, Slice 3 "Banks" to "Bassoon"
“The crystals are invariably complex twins, and have the form of doubly terminated pseudo-hexagonal pyramids, like those of witherite but more acute; the faces are horizontally striated and are divided down their centre by a twin-suture, as represented in the adjoining figure.”
Encyclopaedia Britannica, 11th Edition, Volume 4, Part 3 "Brescia" to "Bulgaria"
“At the Fallowfield lead mine, near Hexham in Northumberland, it is associated with witherite; and at Bromley Hill, near Alston in Cumberland, it occurs in veins with galena.”
Encyclopaedia Britannica, 11th Edition, Volume 4, Part 3 "Brescia" to "Bulgaria"
“Baryta, oxide of barium (BaO), commonly occurs in combination with sulphuric oxide in the mineral barytes or heavy spar (BaSO_ {4}), and in combination with carbon dioxide in witherite (BaCO_ {3}).”
A Text-book of Assaying: For the Use of Those Connected with Mines.
“Four years later Withering’s other other work in geology was recognized in Germany, where in 1796 a new mineral was named “witherite” by Abraham Werner.”
Lists
These user-created lists contain the word ‘witherite’.
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Minerals and Mineralogy
List of minerals, elements, group names and geochemistry terms encountered in the science of mineralogy. I've chosen to avoid capital letters in most examples, though a great many mineral names hon...
galkhaite, xanthoconite, pyrostilpnite, polybasite, pyrargyrite, djurleite, digenite, covellite, chalcocite, cerargirite, acanthite, aeschynite and 2608 more...
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