Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • noun A usually brilliant blue or green variety of plagioclase feldspar that contains approximately equal proportions of sodium and calcium and occurs in silica-poor igneous rocks.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • noun A lime-soda feldspar (see feldspar), one of the species intermediate between the lime feldspar, anorthite, and the soda feldspar, albite, but more closely allied to the former.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • noun (Min.) A kind of feldspar commonly showing a beautiful play of colors, and hence much used for ornamental purposes. The finest specimens come from Labrador. See feldspar.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • noun mineralogy A plagioclase feldspar mineral, calcium sodium aluminum silicate, often very coarsely crystalline, used as a decorative stone for carvings and building façades.

Etymologies

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition

[After the Labrador (Peninsula).]

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

Labrador +‎ -ite

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Examples

  • Did I think the labradorite was the right face out?

    Barnstorming on an Invisible Segway marykaykare 2008

  • What do you call "labradorite" in a second-world fantasy setting?

    if they take us, they will burn us. worldwire 2007

  • This was Meyer's Minerals, a shop that makes jewelry and other objects from local stones such as labradorite and marble.

    Archive 2008-07-01 2008

  • (Also the Banshee earrings, and the Seer's Stone necklace (but I do not need to hoard all of the world's labradorite!), and Copper Gleam ...) tell your story

    Monday taliakit 2009

  • While Ms. Mina does use precious stones — either gems she is given by clients or vintage stones like moonstone, opal or labradorite — what marks out her work is the intuitive play in metal of concave and convex, edge and center, form and decoration, mobility and stillness.

    With a Twist and a Turn Emma Crichton-Miller 2011

  • So I now have a silver wandering wire and labradorite pendant, and it is so shiny, and I am so pleased.

    Barnstorming on an Invisible Segway marykaykare 2008

  • We had seen labradorite in all the gift shops, but I didn't care for it - and now I discovered why.

    Archive 2008-07-01 2008

  • The labradorite jewelry was out of my price range, but there were earrings made of other local stones that were more reasonable and really nice.

    Archive 2008-07-01 2008

  • Gutmann (1974) found similar tubular voids in labradorite phenocrysts from Sonora, Mexico.

    Evidence for Fluid Saturation and Degassing 2008

  • I like the geometric look of the square pendant which she wire wrapped in sterling silver, as well as the soft colors of the pearls and labradorite together.

    Today Featuring Jewelry Designer...That's Headley! Studio Marcy - Marcy Lamberson 2007

Comments

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  • Merriam-Webster Dictionary:

    noun

    Etymology: Labrador Peninsula, Canada

    Date: 1814

    : an iridescent feldspar used especially in jewelry

    February 11, 2008