Min. Obs. rare. Also kiffe-, kiefe-. [‘Said to mean the earth of Keffe or Kaffe, the town of the Crimea from which it was shipped’ (Chester, Dict. Names Min.). Perh. repr. Pers. kef-i-gil ‘foam of clay’; but the classical Pers. name is kef-i-daryā ‘foam of the sea’ (J. T. Platts).] = MEERSCHAUM.
[1758. Cronstedt, Mineralogie, 79 states, that the Keffekil Tartarorum was used by the Tartars as soap.]
1784. Kirwan, Elem. Min., 59. Meershaum of the Germans, Keffekill. Ibid. (1796), (ed. 2), I. 145. Keffekill or myrsen … is said to be when recently dug of a yellow colour, and as tenacious as cheese or wax.
1807. T. Thomson, Chem. (ed. 3), II. 477. To the first of these classes belongs the ruby; to the second, steatites and kiffekille.
