"A mineral containing iron, manganese, niobium, and other elements, subsequently identified with samarskite", Mid 19th cent.; earliest use found in American Journal of Science. From ancient Greek ἀδελϕός brother + -lite, after Swedish adelfolit, adelpholit or German Adelpholith; so called with reference to a perceived close similarity of the mineral to samarskite.[adelpholite etymology, adelpholite origin, 英语词源]