The International Comparative Study on the Origin of the Terms of Mineral and Rock

Abstract

The purpose of this study is to analyse the origin of the terms for well-known minerals and rocks in South Korean, North Korean, English, Chinese and Japanese. All of the terms for mineral and rock have been standardized in English and Chinese, Whereas not all of the terms are standardized yet in Japanese, North Korean and South Korean. Although many Korean researchers have recognized the fact and tried to standardize the terms, most of the terms for minerals and rocks have been used without any research conducted on them, which made it impossible. The terms for minerals were mainly made based on some of 28 geologic properties: chemical composition, color, shape and material. The terms for rocks were mainly originated from some of their 30 geologic properties: mineral composition, origin of rock, material and surface. 23 of the 124 English terms were named after the names of men or location, Whereas only 3 terms were originated from a name of place in the Eastern countries. In the Eastern countries, the terms for some minerals or rocks often consist of more complex geologic properties, compared with English terms for the same ones. For the minerals with complex geological properties, in the Eastern countries, there are 28 terms on average, which is much more than 2 in English. There are 9.25 terms in average for the rocks with complex geological properties in the Eastern while only 5 terms exist in English. Some of the Korean terms are very difficult for students to recognize what they are because the terms were originated from Japanese or English terms, which were translated into Korean without consideration of Korean contexts. Therefore the terms of rocks and minerals need to be discussed about their meaning and relevance.

Bulk graphite: materials and manufacturing process

“…In 1550, it began to be used in pencils, and Abraham Gottlob Werner (1750-1817) coined the term "graphein," from "to write" in Greek [1][2][3][4]. The development of graphite was closely related to that of electricity.…”