schist

noun

ˈshist 

: a metamorphic crystalline rock that has a closely foliated structure and can be split along approximately parallel planes

Examples of schist in a Sentence

Recent Examples on the Web

Fordham gneiss, one of the three main New York City rock types (Inwood marble and Manhattan schist are the others), had been the road builders’ big obstacle here. —Ian Frazier, The New Yorker, 15 July 2024

Five grape varieties from 11 plots filled with limestone and schist known as écailles de Cabrières were grown using biodynamic principles and aged in new oak for six months. —Mike Desimone and Jeff Jenssen, Robb Report, 13 June 2024

Advertisement The base layer of the PV cake is Catalina schist. —Patt Morrison, Los Angeles Times, 3 May 2024

Woolery encourages a broad, telegraphic style in her actors, but Tousey, as Bobbie, operates from a stillness as foundational as that Manhattan schist. —Helen Shaw, The New Yorker, 7 Dec. 2023

Word History

Etymology

borrowed from French schiste (Middle French pierre schiste, with pierre "stone"), borrowed from Latin schistos (in Pliny's Naturalis historia) "a kind of iron ore, perhaps limonite," shortened from lapis schistos, literally, "fissile stone," from lapis "stone" + schistos "easily split, fissile," borrowed from Greek schistós "split, divided," verbal adjective of schízein "to split, separate" — more at shed entry 1

First Known Use

circa 1782, in the meaning defined above

Kids Definition

schist

noun

ˈshist 

: a metamorphic rock that can be split along nearly parallel planes