Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary · 1913

Metasomatism

Metasomatism , noun

[Prefix meta- + Greek {not transcribed}, {not transcribed}, body.]

(Geology) An alteration in a mineral or rock mass when involving a chemical change of the substance, as of chrysolite to serpentine; -- opposed to ordinary metamorphism, as implying simply a recrystallization.