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The Collaborative International Dictionary
Chrysoprase

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] ||

Chrysoprase

Chrysoprase \Chrys"o*prase\, n. [OE. crisopace, OF. crisoprace, F. chrysoprase, L. chrysoprasus, fr. Gr. ?; chryso`s gold + ? leek.] (Min.) An apple-green variety of chalcedony, colored by nickel. It has a dull flinty luster, and is sometimes used in jewelry. [1913 Webster] ||

Wiktionary
chrysoprase

n. (context mineral English) A variety of light-green translucent quartz.

WordNet
chrysoprase

n. a green variety of chalcedony valued as a gemstone

Wikipedia
Chrysoprase

Chrysoprase, chrysophrase or chrysoprasus is a gemstone variety of chalcedony (a cryptocrystalline form of silica) that contains small quantities of nickel. Its color is normally apple-green, but varies to deep green. The darker varieties of chrysoprase are also referred to as prase. (However, the term prase is also used to describe chlorite-included quartz, and to a certain extent is a color-descriptor, rather than a rigorously defined mineral variety.)

Chrysoprase is cryptocrystalline, which means that it is composed of crystals so fine that they cannot be seen as distinct particles under normal magnification. This sets it apart from rock crystal, amethyst, citrine, and the other varieties of crystalline quartz. Other members of the cryptocrystalline silica family include agate, carnelian, and onyx. Unlike many non-transparent silica minerals, it is the color of chrysoprase, rather than any pattern of markings, that makes it desirable. The word chrysoprase comes from the Greek χρυσός chrysos meaning 'gold' and πράσινον prasinon, meaning 'green'.

Unlike emerald which owes its green color to the presence of chromium, the color of chrysoprase is due to trace amounts of nickel compounds in the form of very small inclusions. The nickel reportedly occurs as different silicates, like kerolite or pimelite (not NiO mineral, bunsenite, as was reported before). Chrysoprase results from the deep weathering or lateritization of nickeliferous serpentinites or other ultramafic ophiolite rocks. In the Australian deposits, chrysoprase occurs as veins and nodules with brown goethite and other iron oxides in the magnesite-rich saprolite below an iron and silica cap.

As with all forms of chalcedony, chrysoprase has a hardness of 6–7 on the Mohs hardness scale and a conchoidal fracture like flint.

The best known sources of chrysoprase are Queensland, Western Australia, Germany, Poland, Russia, Arizona, California, and Brazil. The chrysoprase and Ni silicate ore deposit in Szklary, Lower Silesia, Poland, was probably the biggest European chrysoprase occurrence and possibly also the biggest in the world.

A very similar mineral to chrysoprase is chrome chalcedony, in which the color is provided by chromium rather than nickel.

Usage examples of "chrysoprase".

The foundations of the walls are of jasper, sapphire, chalcedony, emerald, sardonix, sard, chrysolite, beryl, topaz, chrysoprase, hyacinth, and amethyst.

The marble, worn and mellowed by the subtle hand of time, took on an unspeakable rosy hue, suggestive in some remote way of the honey colored columns of the Parthenon, but more mystic, more complex, a color not born of the sun's inveterate kiss, but made up of cryptal twilight, and the flame of candles upon martyrs' tombs, and gleams of sunset through symbolic panes of chrysoprase and ruby.

He strode across the chrysoprase floor to the wall and swung down a section of the wall, carved in the semblance of a giant eagless of this planet.