GC: n

CT: A distinction is proposed between mineral coal and extracted coal. Mineral coal is a complex natural composite that is found in underground beds, while extracted coal is created from mineral coal in working those beds. It is important to keep in mind that mineral coal is created by natural processes, whereas extracted coal is produced by human activity.

S: Springer – https://bit.ly/2rEUuXM (last access: 15 December 2018)

N: 1. – mineral (adj): early 15c., “neither animal nor vegetable,” from Old French mineral and directly from Medieval Latin mineralis. Mineral water (early 15c.) originally was water found in nature with some mineral substance dissolved in it.
– coal (n): Old English col “charcoal; live coal, piece of wood or other combustible substance, either burning or having been burned,” from Proto-Germanic *kula(n) (source also of Old Frisian kole, Middle Dutch cole, Dutch kool, Old High German chol, German Kohle, Old Norse kol), from PIE root *g(e)u-lo- “live coal” (source also of Irish gual “coal”).
Meaning “solid mineral consisting of fossilized carbon, combustible and used as fuel,” is from mid-13c. The thing itself is mentioned 370 B.C.E. by Theophrastus in his treatise “On Stones” under the name lithos anthrakos (see anthrax). Traditionally good luck, coal was given as a New Year’s gift in England, said to guarantee a warm hearth for the coming year.
2. The term “mineral coal” (a translation of the French houille, itself a Gallicised Walloon word) designates a carbonaceous rock with origins in the decomposition of plants in the Carboniferous period.
3. It is one of the three varieties (along with “peat” and “brown coal”) of what is more commonly known as “coal”.
4. Mineral coal, whose capacity for transformation is greater than that of peat or brown coal, is the coal whose carbon tenor and calorific value is the highest.
5. The variety of mineral coal with the largest proportion of carbon is called “anthracite.”
6. It is still intensively mined today for personal heating, but above all for industrial and energy production.
7. Coal occurring in the form of layers or seams among stratified rocks.
8. The Mo-Ni sulphide ores consist of a mixture of sulphide clasts, phosphorite pellets and low-grade anthracitic coal referred to as “stone coal.”
9. Following The Oxford English Dictionary (OXENG, 1989, volume 6, page 111), “fossil”, as an adjective, means “obtained by digging” or “found buried in the earth”.

S: 1. OED – https://bit.ly/2UUkUCu (last access: 15 December 2018). 2 to 6. REFLEX – https://bit.ly/2A2Ut4z (last access: 15 December 2018). 7 to 9. TERMIUM PLUS – https://bit.ly/2SNv4ms (last access: 15 December 2018).

SYN: fossil coal, stone coal, coal, earth coal, pit coal. (depending on context)

S: TERMIUM PLUS – https://bit.ly/2SNv4ms (last access: 15 December 2018)

CR: anthracite, bituminous coal, charcoal, coal, coke, coking-plant, lignite , peat.