The story
Taaffe + -ite, after Edward Charles Richard Taaffe (1898-1967), Irish gemmologist, who discovered it in a sample set of spinel from whence it was miscategorized
Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.
Today it means: A rare mauve gemstone with a hexagonal crystal structure. Full definition →
Taaffe + -ite, after Edward Charles Richard Taaffe (1898-1967), Irish gemmologist, who discovered it in a sample set of spinel from whence it was miscategorized
Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.