Emily Dickinson Lexicon

BEL'EM-NITE, n. [Gr. βελεμνον, a dart, or arrow, from βελος, from the root of βαλλω, pello, to throw.]

1. Arrow-head, or finger-stone; vulgarly called thunder-bolt, or thunder-stone. A genus of fossil shells, common in chalk and limestone. These shells consist of an interior cone, divided into partitions connected by a siphon, as in the nautilus, and surrounded by a number of concentric layers, made up of fibers radiating from the axis. These layers are somewhat transparent, and when burnt, rubbed or scraped, give the odor of rasped horn. The species are now extinct. – Encyc. Ed. Encyc.
2. A generic name for the organic remains of extinct fossil bodies of the class Cephalopodes. – Haldiman.