gneissoid

[nahy-soid]

adjective

1. resembling gneiss.

Word History and Origins

Origin of gneissoid¹

First recorded in 1840–50; gneiss + -oid

Example Sentences

Outcrops of a gneissoid schist on the valley sides and rapids in the stream bear witness to the youthfulness of this portion of the river channel.

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It produced effects varying from granite with a rude gneissoid appearance, through a banded fine gneiss, into a fine quartz schist or slate.

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These slaty and gneissoid planes are seen to be parallel to the direction and attitude of the sediments, wherever they are near enough for comparison.

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At this distance, rapids commence, and the bed of the river exhibited greenstone and gneissoid boulders.

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We started on our return down the valley at three o'clock, and took particular note of the succession of the rocks, as I had become much interested in finding these quartz and gneissoid beds, which I had no doubt were the same Laurentian rocks that I had seen in Canada and Brazil—the very backbone of the continent, ribbing America from Patagonia to the Canadas—the fundamental gneiss which is covered, in other parts of Central America that I had visited, by strata of much more recent origin.

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