Adjacent Words

Obsidian definitions

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Webster's 1828 Dictionary

OBSID'IAN, n. A mineral of two kinds, translucent and transparent. The translucent has a velvet black color; the transparent is of a dark blue. These occur massive in porphyry, gneiss or granite, generally invested with a gray opake crust.
The fracture of obsidian is vitreous or pearly; hence the two varieties, vitreous obsidian and pearlstone.

WordNet (r) 3.0 (2005)

n
1: acid or granitic glass formed by the rapid cooling of lava without crystallization; usually dark, but transparent in thin pieces

Merriam Webster's

noun Etymology: New Latin obsidianus, from Latin obsidianus lapis, false manuscript reading for obsianus lapis, literally, stone of Obsius, from Obsius, its supposed discoverer Date: 1796 a dark natural glass formed by the cooling of molten lava

Oxford Reference Dictionary

n. a dark glassy volcanic rock formed from hardened lava. Etymology: L obsidianus, error for obsianus f. Obsius, the name (in Pliny) of the discoverer of a similar stone

Webster's 1913 Dictionary

Obsidian Ob*sid"i*an, n. [L. Obsidianus lapis, so named, according to Pliny, after one Obsidius, who discovered it in Ethiopia: cf.F. obsidiane, obsidienne. The later editions of Pliny read Obsianus lapis, and Obsius, instead of Obsidianus lapis, and Obsidius.] (Min.) A kind of glass produced by volcanoes. It is usually of a black color, and opaque, except in thin splinters. Note: In a thin section it often exhibits a fluidal structure, marked by the arrangement of microlites in the lines of the flow of the molten mass.