Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • noun A lustrous, blackish-brown rare-earth mineral consisting primarily of cerium, erbium, titanium, uranium, and yttrium.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • noun A brownish-black mineral with a submetallic luster, found in Norway, which contains the metals yttrium, niobium (columbium), titanium, uranium, and some others.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • noun (Min.) A brownish black mineral with a metallic luster, found in Norway. It contains niobium, titanium, yttrium, and uranium, with some other metals.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • noun mineralogy A dark brown lustrous mineral that is a mixed oxide of cerium, erbium, titanium, uranium, yttrium and other more common metals, with the chemical formula (Y,Ca,Ce,U,Th)(Nb,Ta,Ti)2O6.

Etymologies

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition

[From Greek euxenos, kind to strangers (from its unusual composition) : eu-, eu- + xenos, stranger; see ghos-ti- in Indo-European roots.]

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

From Ancient Greek εὔξενος (euksenos, "friendly to strangers, hospitable").

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Examples

  • In 1879 a Swedish chemist named Lars Fredrik Nilson was looking for rare earth elements in the minerals euxenite and gadolinite when he discovered erbium and ytterbium; scandium was later separated from the ytterbium.

    Scandium 2008

Comments

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  • how does this word exhibit "kindness to strangers"? In what vein is it meant? It contains so much that is rare earth, perhaps

    March 9, 2009

  • A xenodochial mineral!

    March 9, 2009