The story
- Ancient Greek · derived fromκατώφορος“having a downward tendency”
- German · borrowed fromKatoforite
- English todaykatophorite
From German Katoforite, that from Ancient Greek κατώφορος (katṓphoros, “having a downward tendency”), from κάτω (kátō, “downward”) and φέρω (phérō, “to bear, carry”), referring to the mineral's volcanic origin. The suffix -ite was already used for other minerals.
Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.