Min. [f. Gr. κρύσταλλ-ος CRYSTAL + -ITE.]
† 1. A name applied to the somewhat crystalline form and structure taken by igneous rocks, lavas, etc., upon fusion and slow cooling.
1805. Sir J. Hall, in Trans. Soc. Edin., V. 43. (Whinstone and Lava).
1807. T. Thomson, Chem. (ed. 3), II. 486. Sir James Hall … has given the whin in this last state the name of crystallite, a term suggested by Dr. Hope…. The rock on which Edinburgh Castle is built fuses at the temperature of 45° Wedgewood. By rapid cooling it is converted into a glass which melts at 22°; by slow cooling into a crystallite which melts at 35°. Ibid., 488. In the crystallite, the component parts having had time to combine according to their affinities.
1852. Th. Ross, trans. Humboldt’s Trav., I. 101. The fibrous plates of the crystalites of our glass-houses.
2. A term proposed by Vogelsang for aggregations, in various forms, of the globulites seen in thin sections of rock under the microscope; by some identified with MICROLITH.
1878. Lawrence, trans. Cotta’s Rocks Class., 67. Many rocks … more or less filled with very minute crystals, or so-called crystallites.
1881. J. W. Judd, Volcanoes, iii. 53. Those minute particles of definite form, which the microscope has revealed in the midst of the glassy portions of lava, have received the name of microliths, or crystallites.
3. poetically. = CRYSTAL sb. 2.
1838. S. Bellamy, Betrayal, 150. Write Upon her walls of crystallite Salvation!
