Fluorite - History and Etymology

History and Etymology

Fluorite derives from the Latin noun fluo, meaning a stream or flow of water. In verb form this was fluor or fluere, meaning to flow. The mineral fluorite was originally termed fluorospar and was first discussed in print in a 1530 work Bermannus, sive de re metallica dialogus, by Georgius Agricola, as a mineral noted for its usefulness as a flux. The compounds used as flux (from the Latin noun fluxus, a wash or current of water) are used in metallurgy for a number of different purposes, but in smelting they are used to lower the melting point and promote the fusion of metals and minerals in slag. Agricola, a German scientist with expertise in philology, mining, and metallurgy, named fluorspar as a Neo Latinization of the German Flussespar from Flusse (stream, river) and "Spar" (meaning a nonmetallic mineral akin to gypsum, spærstān, spear stone, referring to its crystalline projections).

Presently, the word "fluorspar" is most commonly used for fluorite as the industrial and chemical commodity, while "fluorite" is used mineralogically and in most other senses.