silicate

Forms

silicate m (plural silicates)^[1]

Etymology

It is formed from French silice + -ate, a learned derivative.^[2][3][4] Bloch and Wartburg list it among the derivatives of the French word for flint, and the FEW files it under Latin silex (“flint, hard stone”).^[5][6]

Earliest recorded meaning

It is first recorded in 1818, in Riffault des Hêtres's French translation of Thomas Thomson's Système de chimie, for a compound of silica with a base.^[2][4]

Semantic evolution

The word has stayed a term of chemistry and mineralogy.^[7][8] Littré defines it as a salt formed by silicic acid with a base, and modern dictionaries as a combination of silica with a metallic oxide.^[7][2][8] In mineralogy it names the large class of minerals built on a tetrahedron of one silicon atom and four oxygen atoms, which make up most magmatic and metamorphic rocks.^[9][3] The adjective silicaté “containing silicates” is recorded from 1842.^[2][8]

Timeline

• 1818 – First recorded in Riffault des Hêtres's translation of Thomson's Système de chimie.^[2][4]
• 1842 – The adjective silicaté appears in the supplement to the Académie dictionary.^[2]

Meanings

Noun

1. (chemistry) A salt or ester² of a silicic acid, a compound of silica with a metallic oxide: un silicate d'alumine.^[2][9][8]
2. (mineralogy) A mineral of the group built on SiO₄ tetrahedra, the chief constituents of magmatic and metamorphic rocks: l'argile et le feldspath sont des silicates.^[9][3][8]

Word family

• silicaté

Related words

• silice
• silex

References

1. ^ a b Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g Trésor de la langue française informatisé (2004), ATILF – CNRS & Université de Lorraine, atilf.fr/tlfi; electronic version of Imbs, Paul; Quemada, Bernard, eds. (1971–1994), Trésor de la langue française, Paris: CNRS / Gallimard
3. ^ a b c Rey, Alain, ed. (2005), Le Grand Robert de la langue française, electronic version, Paris: Le Robert
4. ^ a b c Guilbert, Louis; Lagane, René; Niobey, Georges, eds. (1971–1978; 1989), Grand Larousse de la langue française, Paris: Larousse
5. ^ Bloch, Oscar; Wartburg, Walther von (1989), Dictionnaire étymologique de la langue française, 8th ed., Paris: Presses universitaires de France
6. ^ Wartburg, Walther von, et al. (1922–2002), Französisches Etymologisches Wörterbuch, 25 vols., Bonn / Leipzig / Basel: Klopp / Teubner / Zbinden, p. 11, 613a
7. ^ a b Littré, Émile (1873–1877), Dictionnaire de la langue française, 4 vols. and supplement, Paris: Hachette
8. ^ a b c d e Rey-Debove, Josette; Rey, Alain, eds. (2007), Le Petit Robert de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert
9. ^ a b c Dictionnaire de français Larousse, larousse.fr/dictionnaires/francais (accessed 2024)