[f. FISSILE + -ITY.] The quality of being fissile or cleavable.
1670–81. in Blount, Glossogr.
1689. G. Harvey, Curing Dis. by Expect., xxii. 178. A Brick-layer or Stone-cutter, beyond the knowledge of the brickleness and fissility of a Stone.
1837. J. Macculloch, Attributes God, III. xlv. 202. Sandstone demands no particular remarks; but had the fissility of slate not been known, it would scarcely have been credited, especially by those who know that it does not occur in consequence of its stratified disposition.
1882. Geikie, Text-bk. Geol., II. II. § 6, 121. This superinduced fissility or ‘cleavage’ has resulted from an internal rearrangement of the particles in planes perpendicular to the direction in which the rocks have been compressed.
