obsidian

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“
The early dentists used a drill-like device with a hard stone such as obsidian, which is capable of puncturing bone.

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Definitions (4)

Toggle American Heritage definitions American Heritage Dictionary (1)

  1. noun A usually black or banded, hard volcanic glass that displays shiny, curved surfaces when fractured and is formed by rapid cooling of lava.

Toggle Century definitions Century Dictionary (1)

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

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Examples (50)

  • His eyes were black as obsidian, and Bold could see stars gleaming in them. —  THE YEARS OF RICE AND SALT - Kim Stanley Robinson
  • Their arrowheads and spear tips were flaked obsidian, their baskets woven of reeds and pine needles. —  THE YEARS OF RICE AND SALT - Kim Stanley Robinson
  • Like an enormous mound of tiles made from iridescent obsidian, almost like glass catching what little light the wood had to offer. —  Cheyenne McCray - Spellbound.pdf.htm
  • It had a blade of obsidian, a darksome, glasslike volcanic rock, and the edge rivaled a razor in cutting qualities. —  001 - The Man of Bronze
  • Kamchatka obsidian was only found in the Central and Northern Kurils. —  Spero News
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Etymologies (2)

Toggle American Heritage etymologies American Heritage Dictionary (1)

  1. Latin obsidiānus, misreading of obsiānus (lapis), Obsian (stone), obsidian, after Obsius, a Roman who supposedly discovered it or a similar mineral.

Toggle Century etymologies Century Dictionary (1)

  1. = French obsidiane, obsidienne = Spanish Portuguese obsidiana, from Latin obsidiana, a false reading for obsiana, a mineral supposed to be obsidian, from Obsidianus, a false reading for Obsianus, from Obsius, erroneously Obsidius, the name of a man who, according to Pliny, found it in “Ethiopia.”
 

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/əbˈsɪdiən/
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