Min. [Named, 1886, from Kimberley in Cape Colony + -ITE1 2 b.] The eruptive rock, or ‘blue ground,’ which is the matrix of the diamond at Kimberley and elsewhere in South Africa; it occurs in cylindrical ‘pipes,’ often having a diameter of several hundred feet, and of unknown depth.
1887. H. Carvill Lewis, in Papers on the Diamond (1897), 50. There appears to be no named rock-type having at once the composition and structure of the Kimberley rock…. It is now proposed to name the rock Kimberlite.… Kimberlite is a rock sui generis, dissimilar to any other known species.
1899. Edin. Rev., April, 319. This ‘blue’ rock—named ‘Kimberlite’ by Professor Carvill Lewis—is really of a dull green tint, due to its impregnation with iron oxides.
