aventurine

English
WOTD – 21 July 2019

Etymology
Aventurine glass (sense 1), also known as goldstone
Unpolished (top) and polished aventurine quartz (sense 2)

Borrowed from French aventurine, from Italian avventurino, from avventura (“chance; adventure, venture”) + -ino (suffix forming diminutives), apparently so named because it was discovered by accident in Murano, Italy, when brass or copper filings were dropped into melted glass.[1]

Pronunciation

Noun

aventurine (countable and uncountable, plural aventurines)

  1. A kind of brownish glass containing gold-coloured spangles.
    Synonym: goldstone
  2. (mineralogy, by extension) A variety of translucent quartz, spangled throughout with scales of yellow mica.

Alternative forms

Derived terms
  • aventurescence
  • aventurization

Translations

See also

References
  1. “aventurine, aventurin, n.”, in OED Online ⁠, Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1885; “aventurine” (US) / “aventurine” (UK) in Oxford Dictionaries, Oxford University Press.

Further reading

Anagrams

French

Etymology

From aventure +‎ -ine.

Pronunciation
  • IPA(key): /a.vɑ̃.ty.ʁin/

Noun

aventurine f (plural aventurines)

  1. aventurine

Further reading
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