Emily Dickinson Lexicon

AX'IN-ITE, n.

A mineral which sometimes occurs in lamellar masses, but commonly in crystals, whose general form is that of a very oblique rhomb, or rather, four-sided prism, so flattened that some of its edges become thin and sharp, like that of an ax; whence its name, Gr. αξινη. This is the thumerstone of Kirwan. It has been sometimes called yanolite and violet shorl. – Haüy. Brongniart. Cleaveland.