"macled" - Word of the Day from the OED

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macled, adj.

DRAFT REVISION June 2009

Brit. /mak()ld/, U.S. /mækld/  Forms: 18 mackled, 18- macled. [< MACLE n + -ED suffix². Compare French maclé (late 18th cent. of a crystal).] 

    1. a. Crystallogr. Of a crystal: twinned.

1822 P. CLEAVELAND Elem. Treat. Mineral. & Geol. (ed. 2) 793 Macled Crystal. A hemitrope crystal is sometimes thus called. a1852 W. MACGILLIVRAY Nat. Hist. Dee Side (1855) 455 Garnet..In pentagonal dodecahedrons, single or macled. 1862 G. P. SCROPE Volcanos 33 (note) The crystals being..many of them mackled. 1878 Mineral. Mag. 2 98 Polydymite..occurs in macled octahedrons.

    b. Min. Of a mineral: marked with dark spots or inclusions.

1865 H. WATTS Dict. Chem. III. 740 Clay-slate..may be macled with iron pyrites. 1880 Webster's Amer. Dict. Eng. Lang. Suppl., Macled, marked like chiastolite.

    2. fig.

1858 M. F. MAURY Physical Geogr. Sea xiii. §761 Organisms as delicate as the macled frost.

    3. Heraldry. = MASCLED adj. rare ⁰.

1897 in Webster's Internat. Dict. Eng. Lang., Macled.

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