selenite

plural selenites

1. countableuncountablechemistryA soft, glassy form of gypsum (chemical formula CaSO₄·2H₂O).

   Glass windows replaced the old tiny windows of selenite (crystallized gypsum), and stovepipe replaced adobe chimneys.

   1994, Stewart Brand, How Buildings Learn: What Happens After They’re Built, New York: Viking, →ISBN, page 146

   2 more examples

   I followed them to my study, and found lying on my writing-table still, with the selenite paper-weight upon it, the sheet of work I had left on the afternoon of the opening of the cylinder.

   1898, H.G. Wells, The War of the Worlds, London: William Heinemann, page 295

   Selenite is calcium sulfate, the same chemical substance (gypsum) from which drywall is made. In other words, this is crystal drywall.

   2014, Theodore Gray, photography by Nick Mann, Molecules:The Elements and the Architecture of Everything, 2018 Paperback Edition, page 99

   Synonyms: satin spar

2. countableuncountablechemistryThe anion SeO₃²⁻ derived from selenous acid; any salt or ester of selenous acid.

plural Selenites

1. literatureSynonym of Lunarian (“inhabitant of the Moon”).

   My first impression was of some clumsy quadruped with lowered head. Then I perceived it was the slender pinched body and short and extremely attenuated bandy legs of a Selenite, with his head depressed between his shoulders.

   1900 December – 1901 August, H[erbert] G[eorge] Wells, “The Selenite’s Face”, in The First Men in the Moon, London: George Newnes, […], published 1901, →OCLC, page 136

   Synonyms: Lunarian

1. not comparableliteraturePertaining to the inhabitants of Luna (Lunarians/Selenites).

   a Selenite colony

   1 more example

   "Come, Diana [a dog]," said he; "come, my girl! thou whose destiny will be marked in the cynegetic annals; […] thou who art rushing into interplanetary space, and wilt perhaps be the Eve of all Selenite dogs! come, Diana, come here."

   1873, Jules Verne, “Round the Moon: A Sequel to From the Earth to the Moon. Chapter III. Their Place of Shelter.”, in Louis Mercier [i.e., Lewis Page Mercier], Eleanor E[lizabeth] King, transl., From the Earth to the Moon, Direct in Ninety-seven Hours and Twenty Minutes: And a Trip Round It. […], New York, N.Y.: Scribner, Armstrong & Company, published 1874, →OCLC, page 170