chatoyant

Definitions  ·  Examples  ·  Pronunciations  ·  Etymologies  ·  Related  ·  Statistics  ·  Comments (3)  · 
Another interesting variety of this blue sapphire is one known as "chatoyant"; this has a rapidly changing lustre, which seems to undulate between a green-yellow and a luminous blue, with a phosphorescent glow, or fire, something like that seen in the eyes of a cat in the dark, or the steady, burning glow observed when the cat is fascinating a bird--hence its name.

View all »
Definitions (7)

Toggle American Heritage definitions American Heritage Dictionary (2)

  1. adjective Having a changeable luster.
  2. noun A chatoyant stone or gemstone, such as the cat's-eye.

Toggle Century definitions Century Dictionary (2)

Toggle GNU Webster definitions GNU Webster's 1913 (2)

Toggle WordNet definitions WordNet (1)

Toggle elsewhere links Elsewhere on the web

View all »
Examples (21)

  • Another interesting variety of this blue sapphire is one known as "chatoyant"; this has a rapidly changing lustre, which seems to undulate between a green-yellow and a luminous blue, with a phosphorescent glow, or fire, something like that seen in the eyes of a cat in the dark, or the steady, burning glow observed when the cat is fascinating a bird--hence its name. —  The Chemistry, Properties and Tests of Precious Stones
  • What! are not these garlands and gauzy mists and many-colored streamers which adorn you, is not this music which welcomes you, this radiance that glows about you, meant solely for your enjoyment, young miss of seventeen or eighteen summers, now for the first time swimming into the frothy, chatoyant, sparkling, undulating sea of laces and silks and satins, and white-armed, flower-crowned maidens struggling in their waves, beneath the lustres that make the false summer of the drawing-room Stop at the threshold! —  The Atlantic Monthly, Volume 05, No. 30, April, 1860
  • What! are not these garlands and gauzy mists and many-colored streamers which adorn you, is not this music which welcomes you, this radiance that glows about you, meant solely for your enjoyment, young miss of seventeen or eighteen summers, now for the first time swimming unto the frothy, chatoyant, sparkling, undulating sea of laces and silks and satins, and white-armed, flower-crowned maidens struggling in their waves beneath the lustres that make the false summer of the drawing-room Stop at the threshold! —  Complete Project Gutenberg Oliver Wendell Holmes, Sr. Works
  • As it walks: shimmer, chatoyant, neon. —  dbqp: visualizing poetics
  • "Moon-stone," a variety of pearly adularia presenting chatoyant rays when simply polished. —  Ceylon; an Account of the Island Physical, Historical, and Topographical with Notices of Its Natural History, Antiquities and Productions, Volume 1 (of 2)
 

Tags

Sign up or sign in to add tags.

Stats

This word has been looked up 101 times.

On Twitter

Photos from

flickr images

Etymologies (2)

Toggle American Heritage etymologies American Heritage Dictionary (1)

  1. French, present participle of chatoyer, to shimmer like cats' eyes, from chat, cat, from Vulgar Latin *cattus, perhaps of African origin.

Toggle Century etymologies Century Dictionary (1)

  1. from French chatoyant, present participle of chatoyer, change luster like the eye of a cat, from chat, cat: see cat.
 

Pronunciations
Record your own »

/ ʃætwɑˈyɑn/
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

We are still working on calculating this word's frequency.

Recently looked up

mawkish · fulminations · lacuna · assonance · prime

Recent Favorites

pygopagus · sanglant · Astacus · sweetbread · qualms

Recent Pronunciations

Kansas City · spell it rite · put it in your pocket · A fly and a flea flew into a flue · She sells seashells by the seashore