[f. L. ferr-um iron + -ITE.]
1. Min. a. ‘A name proposed by Vogelsang for the amorphous hydroxide of iron, which in red or yellow particles plays an important part in many rocks, and whose composition is as yet undetermined’ (Dana, Min., 1875 App. II.).
1879. Rutley, Stud. Rocks, x. 167. Ferrite is amorphous red, brown, or yellow earthy matter, which is often pseudomorphous after ferruginous minerals.
b. ‘An alteration product of chrysolite in the doleryte between Gleniffar and Boyleston near Glasgow, Scotland’ (Dana, Min. [1892], 455).
2. Chem. A combination of ferric oxide with a metallic oxide more basic than itself, as barium ferrite, BaFe2O4; calcium ferrite, CaFe2O4; copper ferrite, CuFe2O4, etc. (Muir in Watts’ Dict. Chem., 1889, II. 547).
