Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • noun A pale to deep red or reddish-brown variety of clear chalcedony, used in jewelry.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • noun The beautiful red or reddish color of this stone. The distinctive colors of Cornell University are cornelian and white.
  • noun A siliceous stone, a variety of chalcedony, of a deep-red, flesh-red, or reddish-white color.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • noun (Min.) A variety of chalcedony, of a clear, deep red, flesh red, or reddish white color. It is moderately hard, capable of a good polish, and often used for seals.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • noun mineralogy A hard, reddish brown chalcedony; used in jewelery,

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • noun a translucent red or orange variety of chalcedony

Etymologies

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition

[Middle English corneline, from Old French, from cornel, cornel, from Latin cornus.]

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

The red form was called carneolus in the Middle Ages, from Latin carneus "fleshy" after the color.

Support

Help support Wordnik (and make this page ad-free) by adopting the word carnelian.

Examples

Comments

Log in or sign up to get involved in the conversation. It's quick and easy.