Etymology

gneiss

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Today it means: A common and widely-distributed metamorphic rock having bands or veins, but not schistose. Full definition →

German Gneis ← Middle High German gneist ← Old High German gneisto
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The story

  1. Old High German · derived fromgneisto“spark”
  2. Middle High German · derived fromgneist“spark”
  3. German · borrowed fromGneis
  4. English todaygneiss

From German Gneis, from Middle High German gneist (“spark”), from Old High German gneisto (“spark”). More at gnast.

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.