lapidary
Direct German Translations & Equivalents:
Click any term below to jump straight to its full vocabulary entry in German:
Definitions & Usage
A person who cuts and polishes, engraves, or deals in gems and precious stones.
The field in which such a person works, a subfield of gemology.
An expert in gems and precious stones; a connoisseur of lapidary work.
Gems and precious stones collectively; jewellery.
A treatise on (precious) stones.
Of or pertaining to gems and precious stones, or the art of working them.
Senses relating to inscriptions.
(archaic, rare) Of or pertaining to stones in general.
(of speech or writing, uncommon) Succinct, laconic.
Notable Literary & Historical Quotes
“An excellent lapidary ſet theſe ſtones ſure, / Doe you mark their vvaters?”
— 1624 (first performance), John Fletcher, Rule a Wife and Have a Wife. A Comoedy. […], Oxford, Oxfordshire: […] Leonard Lichfield […], published 1640, →OCLC, Act V, scene i, page 56:
“[T]he method of eſtimating diamonds is altogether arbitrary; and Ratchkali, vvho vvas an exquiſite lapidary, had ſet it in ſuch a manner as vvould have impoſed upon any ordinary jevveller.”
— 1753, [Tobias Smollett], “He Appears in the Great World with Universal Applause and Admiration”, in The Adventures of Ferdinand Count Fathom. […], volume I, London: […] W. Johnston, […], →OCLC, page 234:
“In the very early days of gemstone fashioning, a polisher or lapidary would cut and polish both diamonds and other gemstones. […] Diamonds are now almost exclusively polished by diamond cutting specialists, and all the other gemstones are cut and polished by lapidaries.”
— 2005, P[eter] G. Read, “The Fashioning of Gemstones”, in Gemmology, 3rd edition, Oxford, Oxfordshire; Burlington, Mass.: Elsevier Butterworth-Heinemann, →ISBN, page 252: