Min. Also cænite, cenite. [ad. Ger. kainit, f. Gr. καιν-ός new + -ITE: named by C. F. Zincken in 1865, with reference to its recent formation.] Hydrous chlorosulphate of magnesium and potassium, found in Prussia and Galicia, largely used as a fertilizer.
1868. Dana, Min. (ed. 5), 642. Kainite … is nothing but the impure picromerite.
1877. Daily News, 8 Oct., 2/6. Since the memorable discoveries of kainit and other mineral salts nearly twenty years ago at Stassfurth and Leopoldshall.
1882. Playfair, Indust. U. S., in Macm. Mag., XLV. 335/2. The old exhausted soils lost their productiveness chiefly by the withdrawal of potash, but this is now found in the minerals carnallit and kainit.
