calamite

American  

[kal-uh-mahyt] / ˈkæl əˌmaɪt /

noun

1. any fossil plant of the genus Calamites and related genera of the Carboniferous Period, resembling oversized horsetails and constituting much of the coal used as fuel.

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calamite British  

/ ˈkæləˌmaɪt /

noun

1. any extinct treelike plant of the genus Calamites, of Carboniferous times, related to the horsetails

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Other Word Forms

• calamitean adjective
• calamitoid adjective

Etymology

Origin of calamite

1745–55; < New Latin Calamites the genus name, Latin calamītēs < Greek kalamī́tēs reedlike. See calamus, -ite ¹

Example Sentences

The stem of the largest living species rarely exceeds half-an-inch in diameter, whilst that of the calamite attained a thickness of five inches.

From The Story of a Piece of Coal What It Is, Whence It Comes, and Whither It Goes by Martin, Edward A.

Williamson, Professor, on Conifers of the Coal. —, on structure of calamite.

From The Student's Elements of Geology by Lyell, Charles, Sir

Klaproth adds that he entirely agrees with the learned Jesuit, but maintains that the word calamite, to designate the little green frog, called to-day le graisset, la raine, or la rainette, is essentially Greek.

From On the magnet, magnetick bodies also, and on the great magnet the earth a new physiology, demonstrated by many arguments & experiments by Gilbert, William

The bark having almost al ways disappeared has left the fluted stem known to us as the calamite.

From The Story of a Piece of Coal What It Is, Whence It Comes, and Whither It Goes by Martin, Edward A.

Occasionally some of the calamite brakes and forests of Sigillariae and Coniferae were exposed in the flood season, or sometimes, perhaps, by slight elevatory movements to the denuding action of the river or the sea.

From The Student's Elements of Geology by Lyell, Charles, Sir