leverite n. (also leaverite) a worthless stone or rock, especially one mistaken as being valuable. Editorial Note: Paul Dickson writes in Family Words (1998, p. 79), “Heaverite, according to Raymond J. Nelson of Cody, Wyoming, is a rock that, upon examination, is only good to ’heave ‘er right now.’ Geologist Davide Dattie of Spring Valley, Minnesota, reports Nebulite is a rock you cannot identify—a rock of unknown or nebulous origin.” Etymological Note: As explained in the citations, “leverite” is a jocular transformation of “leaver ‘er right (there).” The -ite suffix is used to form the names of minerals and of organisms found in fossils, among other things. (source: Double-Tongued Dictionary)
Further reading
It was a dark and stormy night. So begins the long and increasingly convoluted prose of Edwards Bulwer-Lytton’s best-known novel. Today the annual Bulwer-Lytton Contest asks contestants for fanciful first sentences that are similarly...
We use the term Milky Way for that glowing arc across the sky. But how people picture it varies from culture to culture. In Sweden, that starry band goes by a name that means “Winter Street,” and in Hawaii, a term for the Milky Way...
I find it fascinating how much fun
words can be and these examples are
an excellent demonstration of this.
Thank you.