Etymology

snottite

snot·tite
S1N1O1T1T1I1T1E1

Today it means: A colony of single-celled extremophilic bacteria that hangs in a sheet (having the consistency of snot or nasal mucus) from the ceilings of some caves like stalactites. Full definition →

First used late 20th c.
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The story

Blend of snot (“mucus, especially nasal mucus”) + stalactite, possibly coined by James A. Pisarowicz in unpublished field notes of an exploration of the Villa Luz Cave in Tabasco, Mexico, in 1988.

First known use, by meaning

  • from late 20th c. A colony of single-celled extremophilic bacteria that hangs in a sheet (having the consistency of snot or nasal mucus) from the ceilings of some caves like stalactites.

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.