Scheelite
Calcium tungstate CaWO₄, an important tungsten ore, especially in skarns and hydrothermal veins.
Language and route: English from German Scheelit, a personal commemorative name coined in mineralogical Latin/German usage. English from German Scheelit, a personal commemorative name coined in mineralogical Latin/German usage
Literal gloss: named for C. W. Scheele
The name and its history
Karl Cäsar von Leonhard; honouring Carl Wilhelm Scheele · 1821 mineral name; Scheele chemical experiment 1781
- What does the word literally mean?
- Immediate linguistic route: English from German Scheelit, a personal commemorative name coined in mineralogical Latin/German usage. Earliest relevant language form supplied here: Scheele (Scheele), conventionally glossed ‘named for C. W. Scheele’. The literal sense is distinct from what the early name was used to classify.
- What did the original author mean?
- Leonhard renamed the mineral formerly called Swedish tungsten (heavy stone) to honour Scheele, whose experiments had shown it contained an unfamiliar acid.
- Why was the name needed?
- The mineral name needed to distinguish this calcium tungstate from the metal newly associated with it, and from German miners’ wolfram ore.
- What evidence supported the original concept?
- Scheele’s laboratory chemistry, later elemental isolation by the Elhuyar brothers, and earlier descriptions of a notably heavy stone belong to distinct events.
- How has geology changed the concept?
- The mineral is a specific calcium tungstate, whereas wolframite is a ferberite–hübnerite series; the older Swedish mineral term became the English metal name tungsten.
Further historical context
Leonhard renamed the mineral formerly called Swedish tungsten (heavy stone) to honour Scheele, whose experiments had shown it contained an unfamiliar acid.
The mineral name needed to distinguish this calcium tungstate from the metal newly associated with it, and from German miners’ wolfram ore.
Scheele’s laboratory chemistry, later elemental isolation by the Elhuyar brothers, and earlier descriptions of a notably heavy stone belong to distinct events.
The mineral is a specific calcium tungstate, whereas wolframite is a ferberite–hübnerite series; the older Swedish mineral term became the English metal name tungsten.
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 — Scheelite — 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
- Historical/source context — WOLF — Additional specific historical or classificatory context; see evidence qualifications