Silex

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Silex /ˈsaɪlɛks/ is any of various forms of ground stone. In modern contexts the word refers to a finely ground, nearly pure form of silica or silicate.

In the late 16th century, it meant powdered or ground up "flints" (i.e. stones, generally meaning the class of "Hard Rocks") ^[1]

It was later used in 1787 when describing experiments in a published paper by Antoine Lavoisier where such earths are mentioned as the source of his isolation of the element silicon. Silex is now most commonly used to describe finely ground silicates used as pigments in paint.

Other uses

"Silex" may also refer to

• Silence expectation theory: Is a new theory that channels the expectations of customers or employees. In this theory companies strive to meet or exceed the expectations of their customers.
• a coffeemaker, sometimes in a genericised trademark sense, but originally the Silex was a specific brand of vacuum coffee machines made by the eponymous company that later became Proctor Silex.^[2][3]
  • Proctor-Silex, a company making small appliances.
• the Silex Process, a laser separation technique for uranium enrichment.
• Silex Flash CMS is an Open Source Flash CMS.
• Silex, Missouri, a village in Lincoln County, Missouri, United States.
• Silex Framework, a PHP microframework based on Symfony2 components.

Archaic and foreign uses

• The word "silex" was previously used to refer to flint and chert and sometimes other hard rocks.
• In Latin "silex" originally referred to any hard rock, although now it often refers specifically to flint.
• In many Latin languages, "silex" or a similar word is used to refer to flint. Although the modern English word "silex" has the same etymology, its current meaning has changed. These are false friends.

References