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Alabaster
Definitions
- 1 Made of alabaster. not-comparable
"The crown is stored in an alabaster box with an onyx handle and a gold lock."
- 2 Resembling alabaster; white, pale, smooth, translucent. not-comparable
"An ominous alabaster fog settled in the valley."
- 1 of or resembling alabaster wordnet
- 1 A city in Shelby County, Alabama, United States.
- 1 A fine-grained white or lightly-tinted variety of gypsum, used ornamentally. uncountable, usually
"Why ſhould a man whoſe bloud is warme within, Sit like his Grandſire, cut in Alabaſter?"
- 2 a very light white wordnet
- 3 A variety of calcite, translucent and sometimes banded. historical, uncountable, usually
- 4 a compact fine-textured, usually white gypsum used for carving wordnet
- 5 An off-white colour, like that of alabaster. uncountable, usually
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- 6 a hard compact kind of calcite wordnet
Etymology
From Middle English alabastre, from Old French alabastre, from Latin alabaster (“box for perfumes or unguents”), from Ancient Greek ἀλάβαστρος (alábastros), from earlier ἀλάβαστος (alábastos, “vase without handles for storing perfumes”). This may further derive from Egyptian ꜥj-r-bꜣstjt (“vessel of the Egyptian goddess Bast”). The Latin suffix -aster is unrelated, but may have influenced the spelling of the borrowing from Ancient Greek (whence a direct loan could have been rendered as *alabastrus).
From Middle English alabastre, from Old French alabastre, from Latin alabaster (“box for perfumes or unguents”), from Ancient Greek ἀλάβαστρος (alábastros), from earlier ἀλάβαστος (alábastos, “vase without handles for storing perfumes”). This may further derive from Egyptian ꜥj-r-bꜣstjt (“vessel of the Egyptian goddess Bast”). The Latin suffix -aster is unrelated, but may have influenced the spelling of the borrowing from Ancient Greek (whence a direct loan could have been rendered as *alabastrus).
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