calamite

[kal-uh-mahyt]

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.

calamite

/ ˈkæləˌmaɪt /

noun

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

Other Word Forms

• calamitean adjective
• calamitoid adjective

Word History and Origins

Origin of calamite¹

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

Word History and Origins

Origin of calamite¹

C19: from New Latin Calamītes type genus, from Greek kalamitēs reedlike, from kalamos reed

Example Sentences

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 Project Gutenberg

He had lately obtained a specimen of calamite with the bark on which showed a nucleal cellular pith, surrounded by canals running lengthwise down the stem; outside of these canals wedges of true vascular structure; and lastly, a cellular bark.

From Project Gutenberg

Mr. Duncan, after next referring to the remains of what he deems a land plant, derived from the same deposit, and which, though sadly mutilated, presents not a little of the appearance of the naked framework of a frond of Cyclopterus Hibernicus divested of the leaflets, goes on to describe the apparent calamite of the formation.

From Project Gutenberg

The best preserved vegetable remain yet found in Denholm Hill quarry," he says, "is the radical portion of what we cannot hesitate to call a species of calamite.

From Project Gutenberg

In its lowest fossiliferous beds we detect a Lycopodite which not a little resembles one of the commonest of our club mosses,—Lycopodium clavatum,—with a minute fern and a large striated plant resembling a calamite, and evidently allied to an existing genus of Acrogens, the equisetaceæ.

From Project Gutenberg