![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
prettygoodwordoolite (OH-uh-lait) - n., a sedimentary rock, usually limestone, consisting of spherical grains that are cemented together.
The grains, which many dictionaries compare to fish roe, are ooliths (though oolith can also refer to the stone itself), and are typically accreted in layers around a core. Arrived in English in 1785, taken from either French oölithe or German Oolit, both from New Latin oölithēs, coined from oö-, pertaining to eggs, from Ancient Greek ōio-, combining form of ōión, egg + -lithe, stone, from Ancient Greek líthos, stone.
Thanks, WikiMedia!
Egg-stone. Seriously.
---L.
The grains, which many dictionaries compare to fish roe, are ooliths (though oolith can also refer to the stone itself), and are typically accreted in layers around a core. Arrived in English in 1785, taken from either French oölithe or German Oolit, both from New Latin oölithēs, coined from oö-, pertaining to eggs, from Ancient Greek ōio-, combining form of ōión, egg + -lithe, stone, from Ancient Greek líthos, stone.
Thanks, WikiMedia!
Egg-stone. Seriously.
---L.
