Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary · 1913

obsidian

obsidian , noun

[Latin Obsidianus lapis, so named, according to Pliny, after one Obsidius, who discovered it in Ethiopia: compare French obsidiane, obsidienne. The later editions of Pliny read Obsianus lapis, and Obsius, instead of Obsidianus lapis, and Obsidius.]

(Mineralogy) A kind of glass produced by volcanoes. It is usually of a black color, and opaque, except in thin splinters.

In a thin section it often exhibits a fluidal structure, marked by the arrangement of microlites in the lines of the flow of the molten mass.