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> 'silex' is a rather old-fashioned word; nowadays it's more commonly called 'flint', which is a sedimentary rock, not an igneous one. https://en.wikipedia.org/
by ralferoo 2y ago
> 'silex' is a rather old-fashioned word; nowadays it's more commonly called 'flint', which is a sedimentary rock, not an igneous one. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Silex https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Silex
From the start of the wikipedia link you yourself provided: "Silex is any of various forms of ground stone."
- kragen 2y agothe next sentence says, 'In modern contexts the word refers to a finely ground, nearly pure form of silica or silicate' and then it goes on to explain that it historically referred to either flint or things that people confused with flint
- ralferoo 2y agoSo given that there are multiple things that it has meant over time, the first statement that it can refer to "any of various various forms of ground stone" seems like a good summary. To claim it can only mean silicates, when two paragraphs later it says "Silex is now most commonly used to describe finely ground silicates", seems somewhat disingenuous. It's not "only used" but "most commonly used".
- kragen 2y agoyour attack on my integrity is outrageous and utterly uncalled for; it's entirely possible to disagree with people without insulting them, and i suggest you learn how right now i don't think 'there are multiple things it has meant over time' is really correct, except in the sense that imperial roman mineralogy was entirely incapable of meaning things we mean today, because they lacked much of our conceptual framework. they didn't know the difference between basalt and flint, evidently, much as many people today don't know the difference between nylon and polyethylene and consequently mistakenly call their polyethylene shopping bags 'nylon'