pyroxene n.

before vowels pyr-, word-forming element form meaning "fire," from Greek pyr (genitive pyros) "fire, funeral fire," also symbolic of terrible things, rages, "rarely as an image of warmth and comfort" [Liddell & Scott], from PIE root *paewr- "fire." Pyriphlegethon, literally "fire-blazing," was one of the rivers of Hell.

before vowels, xen-, word-forming element meaning "strange, foreign; stranger, foreigner," from Greek xenos "a guest, stranger, foreigner, refugee, guest-friend, one entitled to hospitality," cognate with Latin hostis, from PIE root *ghos-ti- "stranger, guest, host." "The term was politely used of any one whose name was unknown" [Liddell & Scott].