Definitions
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.
- noun Rock containing relatively large conspicuous crystals, especially feldspar, in a fine-grained igneous matrix.
from The Century Dictionary.
- noun In ceramics, a hard colored body made by Josiah Wedgwood, in imitation of porphyry.
- noun The English form of the Latin word porphyrites, used by the Romans to designate a certain rock having a dark-crimson ground through which are scattered small crystals of feldspar.
- noun A slab of porphyry, used in alchemy.
- noun In zoology, a porphyry-moth.
from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.
- noun (Geol.) A term used somewhat loosely to designate a rock consisting of a fine-grained base (usually feldspathic) through which crystals, as of feldspar or quartz, are disseminated. There are red, purple, and green varieties, which are highly esteemed as marbles.
- noun (Zoöl.) a handsome marine gastropod shell (
Oliva porphyria ), having a dark red or brown polished surface, marked with light spots, like porphyry.
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.
- noun geology a hard
igneous rock consisting of largecrystals in afine -grained matrix
from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.
- noun any igneous rock with crystals embedded in a finer groundmass of minerals
Etymologies
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition
[Middle English porphiri, porfurie, from Old French porfire, from Italian porfiro, from Medieval Latin porphyrium, from Latin porphyrītēs, from Greek porphurītēs, from porphurā, shellfish yielding purple dye, purple (from its color).]
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Examples
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chained_bear commented on the word porphyry
"On the site where Saint Peter's Basilica now stands, then occupied by an older church built by Constantine and his mother, Helena, the emperor donated a small tonnage of sacred equipment: gold, bronze, and porphyry, candelabra and gifts from the Eastern Church consisting of 225 pounds of balsam, 800 pounds of oil of nard, 650 pounds of unspecified aromatics, 50 corn measures of pepper, 50 pounds of cloves, 100 pounds of saffron, and 100 pounds of fine linen... In total, the emperor donated a staggering 150 pounds of cloves to various churches.... Either way these spices were evidently Church equipment; they were not there to be eaten, no more than the candelabras or censers with which they are grouped. To all appearances we are very close here to customs excoriated by earlier writers, not far from the cinnamon stored in a golden dish in a pagan temple on the Palatine or the dedication of cinnamon to Apollo at Miletus by King Seleucus. A little over one hundred years after Tertullian had railed against the sweet, demon-attracting bait, and within living memory of a time when martyrs had chosen death ahead of burning incense, God had reacquired his nostrils. Who had converted whom?"
--Jack Turner, _Spice: The History of a Temptation_ (NY: Alfred A. Knopf, 2004), 250
December 6, 2016