What's your least favourite mineral name, and why?

We've done favourite mineral names before, so no need to repeat that here. But what is your LEAST favourite mineral name?

Mine has to be nosean. It sounds more like a nasal spray than a mineral.


Jolyon

Eurekadumpite. How totally not creative can it be...

Parisite - try telling someone you found parasite

Its a very fluctuating anti-preference - I was repelled by melanophlogite at first, but have grown to have a fond spot for its weirdness. Today's POTD - Wodginite - sounds fat and flabby, but then you look at the specimen and think "Wow, I just can't dislike that!".

Incidentally, I think of nosean as "no see 'um, no hear 'um, but it's got to be in there somewhere..."

Cheers

Tim

Blödite - because "blöd" is the German word for dopey or stupid.

Uwe Ludwig

My favourites:
Ferri-clinoferroholmquistite
Ferri-ferrotschermakite
Fluoro-alumino-magnesiotaramite
Fluoro-potassic-magnesio-arfvedsonite

Congratulations to the IMA!

Martin


"Komme gleich" ("I'll be right there") - Gotot

Epidote-Pb, because it is so disrespectful of the original historic intent to honnor Mr. Hancock and disrespectful of the science. No new chemistry, structure or valid rational reason to change the original name of hancockite. On top of that it ignores the consistent strontium content. It has now been relegated to the mundaine in name.

Steve.

wad

(no comments)

"Baryte"

Well, my least favourite is not really a mineral, but rather an adjective. Everytime I hear "hematoid" quartz I can't help but laugh. My association memories think back to the old Frank Zappa tune "Talk about your hematoids, baby! (mud shark!). Not the best marketing term in my opinion.

cheers,
stephanie

Anything the metaphysical people make up.

I think...CIANCIULLIITE. Leonarda Cianciulli was an italian serial killer in the 40's of the XX century. She killed three old women and cutted their bodies, then she made soap with fat and cakes with blood. Everything was finally sold to friends. They say that all the...production was of a good quality.

NB: Please notice that Cianciulliite was named after JOHN Cianciulli, late lamented and esteemed mineralogist. Absolutely there's no relations with Leonarda!

Better to be just than good (Kempis)



Edited 4 time(s). Last edit at 08/12/2012 10:01PM by Roberto Bosi.

I think that clino-jimthompsonite was the beginning of the end. No disrepect to Jim Thompson. He didn't name it.

I have many pounds of Snowbird parisites. I've mentioned this in the past, but they actually look like some kind mega-parasite, but small enough to get into your ear canal, and should be re-named "parasite".

Anyone old enough to remember the episode of "One Step Beyond" where a guy's mineral collection became alive and able to move about his house at night, and the specimens killed him while he slept ? A chunk of sharp edged obsidian movin right at ya !!

If I was kept in a little box in a drawer or a hot display case for 30 years or more, and had never even been fed a cheet-o crumb, I'd do the same thing to my warden / curator.

Bart

Mr. Hardinger said mine before I got the chance: everything metaphysical folks dream up.

But if I had to pick one, I'd choose hauyne. No disrespect to the man behind the name, but I just always hated it as a mineral name. Nevermind the fact that I've never known how to pronounce it correctly...

I dislike the name "apatite" when it's pronounced exactly the same as the word "appetite" (the desire to eat food).

I prefer to pronouncing it as "ah-PAT-ite" to differentiate the two words.

I think pronouncing it as such clears up a lot of confusion. Especially when someone says something like, "I have a big apatite." or asks "What do you have an appetite for?" or "Hey man, where did your appetite go!?"

AJMI Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> I dislike the name "apatite" when it's pronounced
> exactly the same as the word "appetite" (the
> desire to eat food).
>
> I prefer to pronouncing it as "ah-PAT-ite" to
> differentiate the two words.
>
> I think pronouncing it as such clears up a lot of
> confusion. Especially when someone says something
> like, "I have a big apatite." or asks "What do you
> have an appetite for?" or "Hey man, where did your
> appetite go!?"

I've lost my apatite.
My least favourite mineral name is Howardevansite, as that is my dads name and I am jealous he has a mineral named after him and i dont , and he's not even interested in minerals. (OK, its named after a different Howard Evans, but it's still not fair!)

To second and third some points here:
a.) metaphysical nonsense
b.) anything systematic, systematics are implicit and using them removes an opportunity to honour someone or some place or be creative
b.2.) indeed, alas, Hancockite
c.) if I had to choose it'd be- can't choose one-the "smectite" group. Sorry fans. It sounds dissonant and what it generally looks like.
EDIT: punctuation



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 08/13/2012 07:04PM by Evan Johnson.

"Eveite" - because giving this name to the Mn-analoge of Adamite seems to imply a biblical origin of both these names - even if Adamite was named 150 years ago after the French Mineralogist Gilbert-Joseph Adam.

Paul Moore was rather "playful" in his choice of mineral names, to say the least. Interesting that Mindat was able to find a picture of the person this mineral was named after
I see that Gilbert-Joseph Adam is in the same picture too, or was Mrs. Adam playing around with someone else?

Oxyplumboroméite (never got what was wrong with bindheimite!), plus Oxyyttropyrochlore-(Y), Kenoplumbopyrochlore and most other new members of the pyrochlore group - you may as well just use the formulae! Plus most new amphibole names for the same reason. Yttrotantalite-(Y) and similar names always look silly. And there are quite a lot of minerals I could not pronounce nor spell either i suspect!)

Regards,
Ralph