The story
- Ancient Greek · derived fromμέλᾱς“black”
- English todaymelanothallite
From Ancient Greek μέλᾱς (mélās, “black”) and θαλλός (thallós, “young/green twig”), because when the mineral is exposed, it turns from black to green.
Words from the same roots
Ancient Greekμέλᾱς all →
melano-
Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.