aventurine
/əˈvɛn.t͡ʃə.ɹɪn/ noun
Forms aventurines adventurine avanturine aventurin
- noun A kind of brownish glass containing gold-coloured spangles.
- noun (mineralogy, by extension) A variety of translucent quartz, spangled throughout with scales of yellow mica.
Synonyms
Etymology
Borrowed from French aventurine, from Italian avventurino, from avventurare (“to venture; to make lucky or prosperous”), from avventura (“chance; adventure, venture”) + -are (suffix forming the infinitive of most regular verbs), apparently so named because it was discovered by accident in Murano, Italy, when brass or copper filings were dropped into melted glass (see, however, the 1843 quotation).
Webster’s 1913
- noun A kind of glass, containing gold-colored spangles. It was produced in the first place by the accidental (par aventure) dropping of some brass filings into a pot of melted glass.
- noun A variety of translucent quartz, spangled throughout with scales of yellow mica. ~= feldspar, a variety of oligoclase with internal firelike reflections due to the presence of minute crystals, probably of hematite; sunstone.
Etymology [F. aventurine: cf. It. avventurino.]
Sources: Wiktionary · WordNet 3.0 · Webster’s 1913 — from the Wiktionary entry “aventurine”, CC BY-SA 4.0. Details