What does covelline mean?
Covelline is a rare copper sulfide mineral, chemically cupric sulfide (CuS), best known under its more common modern spelling, covellite. It typically occurs as flat, plate-like crystals of a deep indigo-blue color that can display vivid iridescent purple and red sheens on fresh surfaces. Found in volcanic deposits and hydrothermal veins—notably at localities such as Mount Vesuvius in Italy and various American mining districts—it is prized by collectors for its beauty but serves only as a minor source of copper compared with richer ores like chalcopyrite. The word belongs almost entirely to the vocabulary of mineralogy, geology, and mining, appearing in scientific descriptions, museum catalogs, and field reports rather than general conversation. Because it is a proper mineral species name rather than a word with figurative senses, its use is precise and literal, and writers today usually prefer the standardized form covellite.
nounA rare indigo-blue copper sulfide mineral (CuS), typically found as platy or tabular crystals and used chiefly as a minor ore of copper; also spelled covellite.
- A rare copper sulfide mineral (CuS), occurring as indigo-blue to iridescent crystals and serving as a minor ore of copper.
"The museum's mineral hall displayed a gleaming slab of covelline, its iridescent blue-purple surfaces catching the light."
"Prospectors identified thin plates of covelline along the fault zone, hinting at richer copper deposits below."
"Under polarized light, the covelline specimen revealed striking bands of peacock-blue iridescence."
Rarely pluralized; when it occurs, the plural refers to multiple specimens or occurrences of the mineral rather than a count noun in ordinary use.
"The drawer contained several small covellines collected from Tuscan localities."
Named for an Italian chemist who first analyzed it at Mount Vesuvius, covelline shimmers in the same deep blue as its namesake's homeland's pottery glazes.
Reviewed by Deb Chak, Editor. AI-assisted content curated by RJS Tech Solutions LLP.
Etymology of covelline
Covelline was named in honor of Niccolò Covelli, the nineteenth-century Italian chemist who first subjected specimens from Mount Vesuvius to chemical analysis and recognized their distinct composition. Like many mineral names coined after surnames, it took the suffix -ine (later more commonly -ite) to denote a mineral species. The variant covellite eventually became the form adopted in standard mineralogical nomenclature.
Related word forms
How covelline is actually used
A technical term confined to mineralogy, geology, and mining contexts; it carries no figurative or everyday use. The spelling 'covellite' has largely displaced 'covelline' in contemporary scientific writing.
Easily confused with covelline
Covellite and covelline are simply alternative spellings of the same mineral name, with covellite now the standard form in modern mineralogical literature.