Crossword clues for chalcedony
The Collaborative International Dictionary
Chalcedony \Chal*ced"o*ny\ (k[a^]l*s[e^]d"[-o]*n[y^] or k[a^]l"s[-e]*d[-o]*n[y^]; 277), n.; pl. Chalcedonies (-n[i^]z). [ L. chalcedonius, fr. Gr. CHalkhdw`n Chalcedon, a town in Asia Minor, opposite to Byzantium: cf. calc['e]doine, OE. calcidoine, casidoyne. Cf. Cassidony.] (Min.) A cryptocrystalline, translucent variety of quartz, having usually a whitish color, and a luster nearly like wax.
Note: When chalcedony is variegated with with spots or figures, or arranged in differently colored layers, it is called agate; and if by reason of the thickness, color, and arrangement of the layers it is suitable for being carved into cameos, it is called onyx. Chrysoprase is green chalcedony; carnelian, a flesh red, and sard, a brownish red variety. [1913 Webster] ||
Douglas Harper's Etymology Dictionary
c.1300, from Latin calcedonius, in Vulgate translating Greek khalkedon in Rev. xxi:19, found nowhere else. Connection with Chalcedon in Asia Minor "is very doubtful" [OED]. The city name is from Phoenician and means "new town."
Wiktionary
n. A form of fine-grained quartz that is nearly transparent or has a milky translucence; it fractures conchoidally.
WordNet
n. a milky or grayish translucent to transparent quartz [syn: calcedony]
Wikipedia
Chalcedony is a cryptocrystalline form of silica, composed of very fine intergrowths of quartz and moganite. These are both silica minerals, but they differ in that quartz has a trigonal crystal structure, while moganite is monoclinic. Chalcedony's standard chemical structure (based on the chemical structure of quartz) is SiO (silicon dioxide).
Chalcedony has a waxy luster, and may be semitransparent or translucent. It can assume a wide range of colors, but those most commonly seen are white to gray, grayish-blue or a shade of brown ranging from pale to nearly black. The color of chalcedony sold commercially is often enhanced by dyeing or heating.
The name chalcedony comes from the Latin chalcedonius (alternatively spelled calchedonius). The name appears in Pliny the Elder's Naturalis Historia as a term for a translucid kind of Jaspis. The name is probably derived from the town Chalcedon in Asia Minor. The Greek word khalkedon (χαλκηδών) also appears in the Book of Revelation (Apc 21,19). It is a hapax legomenon (the term for a word found nowhere else) so it is hard to tell whether the precious gem mentioned in the Bible is the same mineral known by this name today.
Usage examples of "chalcedony".
A large arrow-head of chalcedony has been bound with cords of cotton flatwise along one side of the body.
The hardness of the emery lets a man peering through the clear chalcedony pierce most illusions.
Arrow-maker Made his arrow-heads of sandstone, Arrow-heads of chalcedony, Arrow-heads of flint and jasper, Smoothed and sharpened at the edges, Hard and polished, keen and costly.
Arrow-heads of chalcedony, Arrow-heads of flint and jasper, That my Hiawatha halted In the land of the Dacotahs?
Jondalar was looking for the distinctive characteristics of chalcedony flint, the purest and clearest.
Each white butterfly spark bloomed with color ruby, sapphire, emerald, carnelian, aquamarine, amethyst and rose quartz, banded chalcedony, iridescent opaleach one as lustrous as a gem.
Its mighty towers of sapphire and chalcedony, inlaid with wondrous lapis lazuli.
In most cases, the gray ashlars bore a veneer of carefully chosen and integrated slabs, marble, agate, chalcedony, jasper, nephrite, materials more exotic than that.
They turned into an open door at random, and traversed a series of empty chambers, floored like the hall, and with walls of the same green jade, or of marble or ivory or chalcedony, adorned with friezes of bronze, gold or silver.
The foundations of the walls are of jasper, sapphire, chalcedony, emerald, sardonix, sard, chrysolite, beryl, topaz, chrysoprase, hyacinth, and amethyst.
I knew now that such things were called chalcedonies, and that the guilds used them to store their major spells.
Through this flows a river, and in its bed are found many of those stones called chalcedonies and jasper.
At the doorway of his wigwam Sat the ancient Arrow-maker, In the land of the Dacotahs, Making arrow-heads of jasper, Arrow-heads of chalcedony.
His house in Burroughs was made of rare stones, as all the rich new houses were: a veritable castle of dark purple chert, inlaid with chalcedony and jade, rose quartz and jasper, its floors intricately flagged patterns of polished yellow slate, coral and bright turquoise.
They turned into an open door at random, and traveresed a series of empty chambers, floored like the hall, and with walls of the same green jade, or of marble or ivory or chalcedony, adorned with friezes of bronze, gold, or silver.