Definitions
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.
- noun A blue to blue-green amorphous mineral, Cu2H2(Si2O5)(OH)4 often occurring as thin seams or surface layers in the oxidation zones of copper ores.
from The Century Dictionary.
- noun A silicate of the protoxid of copper, of a bluish-green to sky-blue color, apparently produced from the decomposition of copper ores, which it usually accompanies.
- noun Borax: so called in the sixteenth century because it was used in soldering gold.
from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.
- noun (Min.) A hydrous silicate of copper, occurring massive, of a blue or greenish blue color.
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.
- noun mineralogy A
vitreous silicate mineral that is a minorore ofcopper , with thechemical formula (Cu 2+,Al )2H 2Si 2O5(O H)4·nH2O.
Etymologies
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition
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Examples
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Walk through a dry wash in the Sonoran Desert, as Leslie Silko has been doing daily for the last 30-odd years, and you're likely to find legions of rattlesnakes guarding hidden seams of chrysocolla, gold and other precious metals - which inspire her memoir's title, "Turquoise Ledge."
A novelist explores her desert habitat Post 2010
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Walk through a dry wash in the Sonoran Desert, as Leslie Silko has been doing daily for the last 30-odd years, and you're likely to find legions of rattlesnakes guarding hidden seams of chrysocolla, gold and other precious metals - which inspire her memoir's title, "Turquoise Ledge."
A novelist explores her desert habitat Post 2010
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My room, in a turret, had been painted to look like chrysocolla, a wonderful blend of blues and greens.
The Season of Risks Susan Hubbard 2010
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My room, in a turret, had been painted to look like chrysocolla, a wonderful blend of blues and greens.
The Season of Risks Susan Hubbard 2010
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My room, in a turret, had been painted to look like chrysocolla, a wonderful blend of blues and greens.
The Season of Risks Susan Hubbard 2010
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Archaeologists long assumed that the mysterious pigment came from malachite or chrysocolla, minerals that result from the weathering of copper ore.
Decoding Maya Colors 2008
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A portion of the copper mineral, from which the rock or vein-stuff had been detached as far as practicable, was found to consist of impure hydrated silicate of copper (bluish-green chrysocolla) and carbonate of copper.
The Land of Midian 2003
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The chrysocolla eyes beneath the amber bangs focused on him.
The Rebel Worlds Anderson, Poul, 1926- 1972
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Caligula, in a fit of extravagance, used chrysocolla; and Nero, to surpass him, caused the brilliant red of cinnabar to be mixed with it.
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Caldbeck Fells, Cumberland, where small brilliant crystals are associated with malachite and chrysocolla in a quartzose rock; Rézbánya in the Bihar
Encyclopaedia Britannica, 11th Edition, Volume 4, Part 3 "Brescia" to "Bulgaria" Various
treeseed commented on the word chrysocolla
Chrysocolla (hydrated copper silicate) is a mineral, (Cu,Al)2H2Si2O5(OH)4·nH2O. It is of secondary origin and forms in the oxidation zones of copper ore bodies. Chrysocolla has an attractive blue-green colour and is a minor ore of copper, having a hardness of 2.5 to 3.5. It is also used as an ornamental stone. It is typically found as glassy botryoidal or rounded masses and crusts, or vein fillings. Because of its light color, it is sometimes confused with turquoise. Commonly it occurs only as pourous crusts unsuitable for gem use, but high quality, gem grade chrysocolla can be translucent and is highly prized.
The name comes from the Greek chrysos, "gold", and kolla, "glue", in allusion to the name of the material used to solder gold, and was first used by Theophrastus in 315 BCE.
_Wikipedia
February 14, 2008
ruzuzu commented on the word chrysocolla
"A 2006 study has produced evidence that chrysocolla may be a microscopic mixture of the copper hydroxide mineral spertiniite, amorphous silica and water."
-- https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Chrysocolla&oldid=773322642
April 13, 2017