Bornite
Copper–iron sulphide Cu₅FeS₄, often identified by iridescent tarnish but not uniquely so.
Language and route: English from German mineralogical Bornit, commemorating Austrian mineralogist Ignaz von Born. English from German mineralogical Bornit, commemorating Austrian mineralogist Ignaz von Born
Literal gloss: named for Ignaz von Born
The name and its history
Wilhelm Karl von Haidinger · 1845 replacement naming
- What does the word literally mean?
- Immediate linguistic route: English from German mineralogical Bornit, commemorating Austrian mineralogist Ignaz von Born. Earliest relevant language form supplied here: Born (Born), conventionally glossed ‘named for Ignaz von Born’. The literal sense is distinct from what the early name was used to classify.
- What did the original author mean?
- Haidinger’s honourific displaced earlier descriptive labels such as variegated copper ore, Werner’s Buntkupfererz and Beudant’s phillipsite.
- Why was the name needed?
- Nineteenth-century mineralogy was replacing shifting colour-based market names with stabilised species names, even though the colourful patina remained useful in hand specimens.
- What evidence supported the original concept?
- Mineral habit, colour and reported chemistry supported recognition; the iridescence is typically a tarnish and not a species-defining intrinsic colour.
- How has geology changed the concept?
- Bornite is defined compositionally and structurally; “peacock ore” may refer either to bornite or altered chalcopyrite and is not a reliable species identification.
Further historical context
Haidinger’s honourific displaced earlier descriptive labels such as variegated copper ore, Werner’s Buntkupfererz and Beudant’s phillipsite.
Nineteenth-century mineralogy was replacing shifting colour-based market names with stabilised species names, even though the colourful patina remained useful in hand specimens.
Mineral habit, colour and reported chemistry supported recognition; the iridescence is typically a tarnish and not a species-defining intrinsic colour.
Bornite is defined compositionally and structurally; “peacock ore” may refer either to bornite or altered chalcopyrite and is not a reliable species identification.
Editorial qualification
The cited historical nomenclatural account is secondary; earliest printed naming and exact original wording have not been independently collated.
Related names
Sources
- Mindat — Bornite — Modern mineral identity and secondary mineral-naming history; not independently checked original naming page
- BGS — metalliferous mineral economy of south-west England — Historical mining and ore context; does not authenticate etymology or a first coinage
- BGS — Falmouth regional geology and mining — Cornish tin, copper and hydrothermal ore context; not proof of naming priority