Definitions

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

  • noun A brown to colorless mineral, ZrSiO4, which is heated, cut, and polished to form a brilliant blue-white gem.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • noun A mineral occurring in tetragonal crystals of adamantine luster and yellowish to brownish or reddish color: its hardness is somewhat greater than that of quartz.

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

  • noun (Min.) A mineral consisting predominantly of zirconium silicate (Zr2SiO4) occurring in tetragonal crystals, usually of a brown or gray color. It consists of silica and zirconia. A red variety, used as a gem, is called hyacinth. Colorless, pale-yellow or smoky-brown varieties from Ceylon are called jargon.
  • noun an imitation gemstone made of cubic zirconia.
  • noun a coarse-grained syenite containing zircon crystals and often also elæolite. It is largely developed in Southern Norway.

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

  • noun uncountable A mineral occurring in tetragonal crystals, usually of a brown or grey colour and consisting of silica and zirconia.
  • noun countable A crystal of zircon, sometimes used as a false gemstone.

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • noun a common mineral occurring in small crystals; chief source of zirconium; used as a refractory when opaque and as a gem when transparent

Etymologies

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

[German Zirkon, from Arabic siriqun, from Greek surikon, from Persian āzargūn, fire color : āzar, fire (from Middle Persian ādur, from Old Persian *ātar, āç-, in Āçiyādiya, fire-worship month; see āter- in Indo-European roots) + -gūn, color (from Middle Persian; akin to Avestan gaonəm, hair, complexion (second sense unattested)).]

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

From German Zirkon or French zircone, from Arabic زرقون (zarqūn, "cinnabar, bright red"), from Persian زرگون (zargun) / زریون (zaryun), from Middle Persian 𐭦𐭫𐭢𐭥𐭭 (zargōn).

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Examples

  • The sands are called zircon sands because they contain sand-sized mineral zircon grains.

    Zirconium 2008

  • This double nitrate has a specific gravity of 4.7963, therefore such a stone as zircon, which is the heaviest known, will float in it.

    The Chemistry, Properties and Tests of Precious Stones John Mastin

  • Red zircon, which is rare, is properly called "_hyacinth_."

    A Text-Book of Precious Stones for Jewelers and the Gem-Loving Public Frank Bertram Wade

  • It is probably identical with the lighure of (Exodus 28: 19) The Jacinth or hyacinth is a red variety of zircon, which is found in square prisms of a white, gray, red, reddish-brown, yellow or pale-green color.

    Smith's Bible Dictionary 1884

  • In general the mineral is recovered on a commercial scale only from placers, where it has been concentrated along with other dense, insoluble minerals such as zircon, garnet, ilmenite, and sometimes gold.

    The Economic Aspect of Geology 1915

  • Ad-venture capitalist, explorer and discoverer of heaps of gold, copper, oil, timber and rare earths like zircon, Joshua Fink, 32, has traveled on cold war Russian helicopters to coal mines in Mongolia, gone a mile down in South African gold mines and traveled to copper mines in the middle of the jungle in the Congo.

    Robert Lenzner: The Precocious Joshua Fink Makes 80% On Gold, Copper,Oil , Gas,Timber, Rare Earths Robert Lenzner 2011

  • Ad-venture capitalist, explorer and discoverer of heaps of gold, copper, oil, timber and rare earths like zircon, Joshua Fink, 32, has traveled on cold war Russian helicopters to coal mines in Mongolia, gone a mile down in South African gold mines and traveled to copper mines in the middle of the jungle in the Congo.

    Robert Lenzner: The Precocious Joshua Fink Makes 80% On Gold, Copper,Oil , Gas,Timber, Rare Earths Robert Lenzner 2011

  • Iluka rose 11% after it said it expects strong price increases from its customers for titanium dioxide and zircon.

    Asia Slips; Tepco Slides Shri Navaratnam 2011

  • Iluka rose 11% after it said it expects strong price increases from its customers for titanium dioxide and zircon.

    Asia Slips; Tepco Slides Shri Navaratnam 2011

  • Mary K.V. Hodges, Paul Karl Link, C. Mark Fanning, 2009, The Pliocene Lost River found to west: Detrital zircon evidence of drainage disruption along a subsiding hotspot track

    Scientific Articles on Yellowstone 2010

Comments

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  • from Persian zargun زرگون, "gold-colored"

    August 30, 2009

  • Aircon to Zircon

    August 31, 2009