A chemical preparation or material based on formaldehyde compounds, used as a preservative or disinfectant.
From formol + -ite (suffix from Greek -ites, originally indicating mineral or stone). The -ite suffix was popular in chemistry for naming compounds and preparations.
Formolite follows the Victorian-era chemistry naming pattern where scientists added -ite to make substances sound mineral-like and scientific—it gave commercial products an air of geological authority, even though they were just manufactured chemicals.
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