Tennantite

noun

noun ·Rare ·Advanced level

Definitions

Noun
  1. 1
    A sulfide mineral of iron, copper and arsenic that is an ore of copper

Etymology

Originally named "gray sulphuret of copper in dodecahedral crystals" in 1817 by mineralogist James Sowerby. Renamed in 1819 by William Phillips in honour of Smithson Tennant (1761-1815), an English chemist who discovered the elements iridium and osmium. Tennant + -ite

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Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.