Meaning

noun a common complex mineral consisting of calcium fluoride phosphate or calcium chloride phosphate; a source of phosphorus

originFrom international scientific vocabulary, from German Apatit (“apatite”). Apatit was coined by the German geologist Abraham Gottlob Werner (1749–1817), as follows: Ancient Greek ᾰ̓πᾰ́τη (ăpắtē, “deceit, fraud”) (as it is often mistaken for other minerals) + German -it (suffix forming nouns denoting minerals or rocks; cognate with English -ite); the German word was first used in a 1786 book.…

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 3.0