tourmaline

English

Etymology

From French tourmaline, ultimately from Sinhalese තෝරමල්ලී (tōramallī, carnelian)

Pronunciation

  • IPA(key): /ˈtʊɚ.mə.lɪn/, /ˈtʊɚ.məˌlin/
  • Audio (US):(file)

Noun

tourmaline (countable and uncountable, plural tourmalines)

  1. (mineralogy) A complex black or dark-coloured borosilicate mineral, compounded with various chemical elements and considered a semi-precious stone.
    • 1922, E[ric] R[ücker] Eddison, The Worm Ouroboros: A Romance, London: Jonathan Cape [], →OCLC, page 3:
      The floor of the chamber was tesselated, of marble and green tourmaline, and on every square of tourmaline was carven the image of a fish: as the dolphin, the conger, the cat-fish, the salmon, the tunny, the squid, and other wonders of the deep.
    • 2012 March, Lee A. Groat, “Gemstones”, in American Scientist[1], volume 100, number 2, archived from the original on 14 June 2012, page 128:
      Although there are dozens of different types of gems, among the best known and most important are […] . (Common gem materials not addressed in this article include amber, amethyst, chalcedony, garnet, lazurite, malachite, opals, peridot, rhodonite, spinel, tourmaline, turquoise and zircon.)
  2. A transparent gemstone cut from it.

Hyponyms

Translations

Anagrams

French

Pronunciation

  • IPA(key): /tuʁ.ma.lin/
  • Audio:(file)

Noun

tourmaline f (plural tourmalines)

  1. tourmaline

Further reading