pyritizedadj.
/ˈpʌɪrʌɪtʌɪzd/, /ˈpʌɪrᵻtʌɪzd/, U.S. /ˈpaɪˌraɪdaɪzd/ Impregnated with pyrites; esp. (of petrified wood, fossils, etc.) having had some original material replaced with iron pyrites.
ΚΠ
1805 Philos. Trans. (Royal Soc.) 95 115 Professor Lampadius, in distilling some pyritized wood,..obtained the same substance.
1839 R. I. Murchison Silurian Syst. i. xxvi. 334 I use the term pyritized in reference to these altered rocks in contact with the trap which contain numerous and large crystals of iron pyrites.
1889 Hardwicke's Sci.-gossip 35 162/1 The Crag is in places overlain by glacial sand or gravel, and underlain by London clay rich in pyritised wood.
1942 Bull. Amer. Assoc. Petroleum Geologists 26 46 In the subsurface the recognition of a pyritized zone is comparatively simple.
1974 Smithsonian Contrib. Earth Sci. No. 13. 22/2 Fecal pellets and remnants of pyritized burrow tubes occur.
1997 Daily Tel. 26 Mar. 20/6 The range of preservation, from unaltered wood to petrified to pyritised (containing iron pyrites), is the widest ever seen by Prof Scott from one locality.
This entry has been updated (OED Third Edition, December 2007; most recently modified version published online March 2022).
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adj.1805