amethyst

Definitions  ·  Examples  ·  Pronunciations  ·  Etymologies  ·  Related  ·  Statistics  ·  Comments (1)  · 
“
Then we have the "amethyst" sapphire, which varies from a red to a blue purple, being richer in colour than the ordinary amethyst, which is a form of violet-coloured quartz, but the corundum variety, which, like its companions, is called the "oriental" amethyst, is both rarer and more precious.

View all »
Definitions (12)

Toggle American Heritage definitions American Heritage Dictionary (3)

  1. noun A purple or violet form of transparent quartz used as a gemstone.
  2. noun A purple variety of corundum used as a gemstone.
  3. noun A moderate purple to grayish reddish purple.

Toggle Century definitions Century Dictionary (6)

Toggle GNU Webster definitions GNU Webster's 1913 (1)

Toggle WordNet definitions WordNet (2)

Toggle elsewhere links Elsewhere on the web

View all »
Examples (50)

More examples »
 

Tags

Sign up or sign in to add tags.

Words tagged amethyst

Stats

This word has been looked up 130 times.

stop updating
On Twitter

Photos from

flickr images

Etymologies (2)

Toggle American Heritage etymologies American Heritage Dictionary (1)

  1. Middle English amatist, from Old French, from Latin amethystus, from Greek amethustos, not drunk or intoxicating, remedy for intoxication, amethyst : a-, not; see a-1 + *methuskein, to intoxicate (from methuein, to be drunk, from methu, wine; see medhu- in Indo-European roots).

Toggle Century etymologies Century Dictionary (1)

  1. Early modern English amethist, amitist, amatist (also amates, amatites), from Middle English amatist, ametist, -iste, from Old French amatiste, ametiste, modern F. améthyste = Provencal amethysta = Spanish amatista, ametista, -to = Portuguese amethysta, ametista, -to = Italian amatista = Dutch ametist, -thist, -thyst = German amethyst = Swedish ametist = Danish ametyst, from Latin amethystus, from Greek ἀμέθυστος, the precious stone amethyst, also the name of a plant, both so called because supposed to be remedial against drunkenness, from ἀμέθυστος, adjective, not drunken, from ἀ- privative + *μεθυστός, verbal adjective of μεθύειν, be drunken, from μέθυ, strong drink, = English mead, q. v.
 

Pronunciations
Record your own »
/ˈæməθɪst/
by American Heritage

Charts
frequency chart

Bubble size: how much this word was used in a year

Bubble height: used more or less than expected, vs. all uses evenly distributed

You can expect to see this word about twice a year.

Recently looked up

swarthy · cross-legged · selector · fallopian · tobacco

Recent Favorites

pygopagus · sanglant · Astacus · sweetbread · qualms

Recent Pronunciations

Glockenspiel · Ersatz · Blaukraut bleibt Blaukraut und Brautkleid bleibt Brautkleid · Haifischschwanzflossenfleischsuppe · Der Kottbusser Postkutscher putzt den Kottbusser Postkutschkasten