Stephen White schrieb:
> Dear All,
> Please can someone clarify whether there is a standard
> spelling of pseudotachylyte/pseudotachylite?
The pseudotachylyte comes from tachylyte which is a basaltic glass, in contrast
to obsidian. Tachylyte refers to very quick cooling of the melt so it became
supercooled. Pseudotachylyte was originally thought to be akin to basalt. There
is the classic term "trap-shotten gneisses", trap being another word for basalt
(in Scotland, I believe); these gneisses were subjected to pseudotachylite-
producing cataclasis. (Maybe it comes from the outer Hebrides.)
Pseudotachylite is a more modern spelling, disregarding the etymological
background. It is an alliteration to all the other -lites in geology -
granulite, hornblendite, quartzite. The ending -lite is somewhat imperialistic
because it has already taken over many words which originally ended on -lith,
e.g. actinolite wich was originally actinolith = needle stone.
So the case can be made for either spelling. I use -lite because in my eyes
-lyte looks quaint. In the end it does not matter how the word came about, but
what it means; and I think there is little confusion on that matter.
In my view there is no universal rule to spelling; spelling is a convention, and
as such it can be changed. If there is common consent that we use -lite there's
nothing wrong. In English we write physics, the Italians write fisica. So what?
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