structural:expansion
Etymology

The word "asbestos", first used in the 1600s, ultimately derives from the Ancient Greek: ἄσβεστος, meaning "unquenchable" or "inextinguishable". The name reflects use of the substance for wicks that would never burn up.

It was adopted into English via the Old French abestos, which got the word from Greek via Latin, but in the original Greek, "asbestos" actually referred to quicklime. It is said by the Oxford English Dictionary that the word was wrongly used by Pliny for what we now call asbestos, and that he popularized the misnomer. Asbestos was originally referred to in Greek as amiantos, meaning "undefiled", because when thrown into a fire it came out unmarked. "Amiantos" is the source for the word for asbestos in many languages, such as the Portuguese amianto and the French amiante. It had also been called "amiant" in English in the early 15th century, but this usage was superseded by "asbestos". The word is pronounced / æ s ˈ b ɛ s t ə s / or / æ s ˈ b ɛ s t ɒ s /.