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Sardius, Sard

Sapphirus, Lapis-lazuli Page of 384 Sardius, Sard Text size:minus plus Restore normal size   Mail page  Print this page
278                 NATURAL HISTORY OF GEMS.
The Sard, according to Pliny, is so called after the place Sardis, where it was first discovered. This etymology, however, is merely based upon the similarity of the words, and is of no more worth than the ludicrous derivation given by Epiphanius, from its resemblance in colour to a pickled sardine—an idea though that very naturally suggested itself to an icthyophagous Byzantine saint. But 2Üñ8éïí, the earliest Greek form of the word, cannot be derived gram­matically from 2ap8ei5 ; its root is undoubtedly the Persian Sered, " yellowish red," very slightly altered. The name came with the thing from Persia ; the Babylonian mine produced the sort first known and most esteemed; hence the stone is termed by Epiphanius the Babylonian Sard.
Of the modern name, Carnelian, the derivations are numerous, the usual one being assigned from its colour of raw flesh, carneus. Again, it is spelt Cornelian, as if from Corneolus, and equivalent to the German Hornstein, which last signifies the European sort. Lessing, with some plausibility, supposes this form taken from the French Cornaline, to describe its similarity in colour to the cornel cherry.*
The common Carnelian, a semi-transparent quartz co-
* The word Carnelius dates from the Decline, for we find Marbodus using it (xxii.) to denote a different and inferior stone to the Sardius. As he alludes to its colour of raw flesh, he evidently held to the first derivation of the name.
Sapphirus, Lapis-lazuli Page of 384 Sardius, Sard
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