Purple

Purple (pronounced pur-puhl)

(1) Any color having components of both red and blue (often highly saturated), the darker the hue, the more likely to be described thus.

(2) In color theory, any non-spectral color on the line of purples on a color chromaticity diagram or a color wheel between violet and red.

(3) A dye or pigment producing such a colour

(4) Cloth or clothing of this hue, especially as formerly worn distinctively by persons of imperial, royal, or other high rank.

(5) In the Roman Catholic Church, a term at various times used to describe a monsignor, bishop or cardinal (or their office), now most associated with the rank, office or authority of a cardinal.

(6) Imperial, regal, or princely in rank or position.

(7) Any of several nymphalid butterflies including the red-spotted purple and the banded purple)

(8) Of or pertaining to the color purple (or certain things regarded as purple).

(9) In writing, showy or overwrought; exaggerated use of literary devices and effects; marked by excessively ornate rhetoric (purpureal).

(10) In language, profane or shocking; swearing.

(11) In modern politics, relating to or noting political or ideological diversity (in the US based on the blending of Democrat (blue) and Republican (red); in other places red & blue indicate different places on the political spectrum).

(12) In drug slang; the purple haze cultivar of cannabis in the kush family, either pure or mixed with others, or by extension any variety of smoked marijuana (“purple haze” a popular name for commercially available weed in those places where such thing are lawful.  Purple haze was originally slang for LSD.

(13) In agriculture, earcockle, a disease of wheat.

(14) To make or become purple (or, in ecclesiastical use, to put on one’s purple vestments) .

Pre 1000: From the Middle English noun and adjective purple, purpel & purpur, from Old English purpuren & purpul, a dissimilation (first recorded in Northumbrian, in the Lindisfarne gospel) of purpure (purple dye, a purple garment), from the adjective purpuren (purple; dyed or colored purple), from purpura (a kind of shellfish, Any of various species of molluscs from which Tyrian purple dye was obtained, especially the common dog whelk; the dye; cloth so dyed; splendid attire generally), from the Ancient Greek πορφύρα (porphýra or porphura) (the purple fish (Murex)), perhaps of Semitic origin.  Purpur continued as a parallel form until the fifteenth century and was maintained in the rules of heraldry until well into the nineteenth.  The verb purple (to tinge or stain with purple) was from the noun and emerged circa 1400.  The earlier form was purpured, a past-participle adjective.  The adjective purplish (somewhat purple, tending to purple) was from the noun and dates from the 1560s.  Purple is a noun, verb & adjective, purpled & purpling are verbs, purplish, purpler, purply & purplest are adjectives and purpleness is a noun; the noun plural is purples.

1974 Triumph Stag in magenta.  Some of the shades of brown, beige, orange and such used in the 1970s by British Leyland are not highly regarded but some were quite striking.

The rhetorical use in reference to “the splendid; the gaudy” began as a description of garments (classically imperial regalia) and since the mid-eighteenth century, as “purple prose” of writing.  In US political discourse and commentary, purple has since been used (often in graphical or cartographic form) to indicating the sectional or geographical spaces in which the increasing division of the country into red (Republican) and blue (Democratic) was less apparent.  That this came into widespread use only by around 2004 is because the use of red & blue by the US news media became (more or less) standardized only by the 1990s, use have begun circa 1980, something without any relationship to the linking of the colors (red=left; blue=right) traditional in other parts of the English-speaking world.  Other words used to describe purplish shades include lavender, mauve, amethyst, violet (with many sub-types) lilac, orchid, indigo, mulberry, plum, eggplant (aubergine seems rare but is used in commerce), fuchsia, heliotrope, periwinkle, purpureus & thistle and while many directly reference the flowers of plants, one curiosity is magenta: It was so called because the dye of that shade was created at the time of the Battle of Magenta (1559) in which French and Sardinian forces defeated those of the Austrians.  Purple is widely used in zoology and botany to create common names of species to some extent colored purple.

Purple patch: 1970 Dodge Challenger (440 Six-Pack) in Plum Crazy (left) and 1971 Plymouth Hemi ‘Cuda in In Violet) (clone; right).

Chrysler had some history in the coining of fanciful names for colors dating from the psychedelic era of the late 1960s when the choices included Plum Crazy, In-Violet, Tor Red, Sub Lime, Sassy Grass, Panther Pink, Moulin Rouge, Top Banana, Lemon Twist & Citron Yella.  Although it may be an industry myth, the story told was that Plum Crazy & In-Violet (lurid shades of purple) were late additions because the killjoy board refused to sign-off on Statutory Grape.  The lurid colors soon disappeared, not only because fashions change but because at the time they depended on the use of lead which was banned from paint in the early 1970s.  Not until the early twenty-first century did manufacturers perfect ways economically to replicate the earlier colors without using lead.

Salma Hayek in eye-catching purple,  Cannes Film Festival May 2015.

In idiomatic use, purple is popular.  One “born into the purple” was literally one of royal or exalted birth although it’s now often used even of those from families somewhere in the upper middle class.  The “purple death” was hospital slang for Spanish influenza and it was an allusion to the cyanosis which, because of the difficulty breathing, which would turn the skin purple.  In the early post-war years “purple death” was also used to describe a cheap Italian wine.   The phrase “once in a purple moon” was a variation of “once in a blue moon” and some dictionaries include an entry, apparently only for the purpose of assuring us that not only is it extinct but it may never have been in common use.  “Purple bacteria” (the form only ever used in the plural) are a proteobacteria which produce their own food using photosynthesis; they are all classed as purple, even though some are orange, red or brown.  In the analogue-era world of the phone phreaks (hackers who used the telephone networks for other than the intended purpose), a “purple box” was a device which added a hold facility to a telephone line.  It was an allusion to the general term “black box” used in engineering and electronics to describe small devices with specific purposes; not all “purple boxes” were actually purple.  “Purple gas” was a Canadian term which described the gas (motor spirit; petrol) colored with a purple dye to indicate it was sold subject to a lower rate of taxation and for use only in agriculture and not on public roads.  Anyone found using “purple gas” beyond a farm could be charged and many countries use similar methods though the dye is not always purple.  “Purple gold” was a synonym of amethyst gold (a brittle alloy of gold and aluminium, purple in colour).

1994 Porsche 911 Turbo 3.6  (964) in Amethyst Metallic over Classic Gray.

A “purple passage” (also as “purple prose”) was any form of writing thought showy or overwrought, using an exaggerated array of literary devices and effects or marked by excessively ornate rhetoric.  It was a criticism but the later “purple patch” which describes any particular good period or performance (in any context) was wholly positive.  The “purple pill” was an advertising slogan used by a pharmaceutical company but unlike “little blue pill” (Viagra), it never entered the vernacular.  “Purple plague” has specific meanings in chemistry and electronics (relating to a chemical reaction which produces an undesirable purple compound) but a more amusing use is by Roman Catholic bishops noting a unwanted number of monsignors (who wear a purple sash) in their dioceses, sent there by the Vatican.  In US politics a “purple state” is a “swing state”, one which, depending on this and that, may vote either Republican (red) or Democrat (blue).  The “purple star” was the symbol worn by Jehovah's Witnesses in concentration camps in Nazi Germany (1933-1945), one of a number of color-coded patches, the best-known of which was the yellow Jewish star.  The Jehovah's Witnesses were an interesting case in that uniquely among the camp inmates, they could at any time leave if they were prepared to sign a declaration denying their religious beliefs.  In international air-traffic management, a “purple zone” (also “purple airway”) describes a route reserved for an aircraft on which a member of a royal family is flying.  In US military use, the “Purple Heart” dating from 1932, is still awarded to service personnel wounded in combat.  It’s origin was a decoration in purple cloth first awarded in 1782 which came to be known as the “wound stripe”.  In the mid 1960s, “purple haze” was slang for LSD (Lysergic acid diethylamide, a psychedelic drug with a long history verging on academic respectability before becoming a popular hallucinogenic, users clipping the term to "acid"); it was later repurposed for various strains of weed.

Lindsay Lohan, admirer of all things purple.

The dye tyrian purple (all the evidence suggests it would now be thought a crimson), was produced around Tyre and was prized as dye for royal garments, hence the figurative use in the sixteenth century of purple for “imperial or regal power” (it was also the color of mourning or penitence among royalty or the upper reaches of the clergy).  Tyrian purple (also known as shellfish purple) was for long periods the most expensive substance in Antiquity (often (by weight) three times the value of gold, the exchange rate set by a Roman edict issued in 301 AD.  By the fifteenth century when the intricate process to extract and process the dye was lost, Tyrian purple had for millennia been variously a symbol of strength, sovereignty and money and its use had spread from the Classical world to Southern Europe, North Africa, and Western Asia and was so associated with the civilization of the Phoenicians (the color named after their city-state Tyre) that they were known as the “purple people”.  What many didn’t know was that the dye associated with the illustrious came not from a gemstone or some vivid coral but from the slimy mucous of sea snails in the Murex family.  Debate continues about what must have been the process used in extraction and production although, given many factories and artisans were involved over the years, there may have been many variations of the method.

It was in 1453 when the Byzantine capital Constantinople (modern-day Istanbul) fell to the Ottomans that the knowledge of Tyrian purple was lost, something of a footnote to the end of the Eastern Roman Empire but still a loss.  Then, the infamously smelly dyeworks of the old city were the hub of purple production although, after a series of punitive taxes, the Catholic Church had lost control of the pigment which is the origin of the pope’s decision that red would become the new symbol of Christian power and this was adopted for the garb of cardinals; the story that the vivid red symbolized the blood cardinals mush be prepared to spill in the defense of their pope was just a cover story although one obviously approved of by the pontiff.

Beginning in 1968 with Shades of Deep Purple (left), the rock band Deep Purple sometimes used purple-themed album cover art and may have wished they'd stuck with that for their eponymous third album (1969).  The original cover (centre), featuring a fragment of one panel of the triptych The Garden of Earthly Delights (1490-1510) by Hieronymus Bosch (circa 1450-1516), was declared "demonic" by the US distributors so an alternative needed hastily be arranged and whether because of the tight schedule or just wanting to play it safe, they stuck to purple (right).  They'd earlier had a similar difficulty with their US label when releasing their second album (The Book of Taliesyn (1968)), the objection that time that one song title (Wring That Neck) was "too violent" (it was an instrumental piece and the reference was to a technique used with the neck of a guitar but it was anyway changed to Hard Road).  Times have changed.

In literary theory, “to etiolate” a text is to remove or revise the “purple passages”.  In literature, purple passages are those sections of a text which are overly elaborate, flowery, or extravagant in style, often prioritizing ornate or decorative language and the use of needlessly long words, the meaning of which is often obscure.  Such writing is thought a literary self-indulgence or a mere pretentious display of knowledge; grandiose execution at the expense of clarity, the usual critique being “style over substance”.  The phrase is almost certainly derived from the historic use of the once rare and expensive purple dye being restricted (actually by statute or edict in some places) to royalty and even when availability became wider, the association with luxury & wealth continued.  The idea has long been a tool of critics, Roman lyric poet Horace (Quintus Horatius Flaccus, 65-8 BC) in his Ars Poetica (The Art of Poetry, 19 BC) referring disapprovingly to the purpureus… pannus (a purple piece of cloth), the irrelevant insertion of a grandiloquent or melodramatic passage into a work.  Horace thought this disruptive at best and absurd at worst and “purple passages” continues to be used to describe writing which is needlessly ornate, florid and usually discordantly incongruous.  Used almost always pejoratively (although there do seem to be some admirers), comrade Stalin (1878-1953; Soviet leader 1924-1953) might have called such flourishes “formalism”.

Amethyst

Amethyst (pronounced am-uh-thist)

(1) A purple or violet transparent variety of quartz used as a gemstone.  The color is caused by the presence of iron compounds in the crystal structure.

(2) As the oriental amethyst, a purple variety of sapphire.

(3) A variety of shades of purple; darker hues of fuchsia.

(4) A thing containing or set with an amethyst or amethysts.

(5) A nymph from Greek mythology.

1250-1300: From the Middle English amatist, from the twelfth century Old French ametiste (the Modern French being améthyste) and directly from the Medieval Latin amatistus, from the Classical Latin amethystus, from the Ancient Greek αμέθυστος (améthystos) (amethyst) a noun use of the adjective which translated literally as "not intoxicating; not drunken", the construct being a- (not) + methyskein (make drunk) from methys (wine (and a variant stem of methýein (to intoxicate), the source of methylene)) + -tos (the Latin verbal adjective suffix); the source was the primitive Indo-European root medhu- (honey; mead), famous as the nectar the Valkyries would serve to fallen warriors in the halls of Valhalla.  The meaning in Ancient Greek was literal, the belief being that the stone prevented drunkenness, the link to reality being the color which resembled red wine diluted with water which was of course less intoxicating; chemistry then rather than magic but those who took their wine pure were still inclined to wear rings with an amethyst stone in the hope of avoiding a hangover.

One (dodgy) legend of Amethyst

Lindsay Lohan in amethyst-colored tank-top.

In antiquity, the Greeks believed amethyst could prevent intoxication and the practice was to wear the gem in a ring if the drinking session was to be epic although some maintain there were those who kept a stone in their mouth which seems not a good idea when taking strong drink.  As was often the case, later writers also created their own Greek "myths" and one was the story of the how the beautiful nymph Amethyst, while walking to worship at the Temple of Diana, had the misfortune of crossing paths with Bacchus, the god of wine.  Angry (as often he was), he had vowed vengeance on the next person he met so unleashed his two guardian tigers upon the poor waif.  As the great beasts bounded towards her, the goddess Diana intervened and to spare her from her terrible fate, transformed her into a pure, clear stone.  Remorse immediately seized Bacchus and in an attempt to atone, poured his wine over the stone, staining the crystal a deep, violet hue and that's how Amethyst lent her name to the crystal.  Although presented in Classical guise, this "myth" dates only from the Renaissance, the French poet Remy Belleau (1528-1577) creating the tale in 1576.

1994 Porsche 911 Turbo 3.6  (964) in Amethyst Metallic over Classic Gray.

The presence of manganese in clear Quartz produces Amethyst, while additional amounts of iron vary the purple coloration. It ranges in hue from pale red-violet to deep violet and may be transparent or opaque. In addition, it is sometimes layered with white Quartz (as Chevron Amethyst), found in combination with Cacoxenite, mixed with Citrine as Ametrine, or in rare cases, “rutilated” with Goethite.  In the modern system of, it's a semi-precious stone but to the ancients it was a “gem of Fire" and at some points in history has been as highly valued as diamonds.  Anglican bishops wear an episcopal ring often set with an amethyst, an allusion to Acts 2:15 in which the Apostles are noted to be sober at nine in the morning, the piece of scripture from which is derived that measure of English respectability: never taking a G&T before noon.  Medieval European soldiers wore amethyst amulets into battle in the belief the stone had healing properties and in several cultures, they were a popular burial stone, found most often in Anglo-Saxon graves in England.  Faith in the healing power of the stone is maintained by the new-age movement, something probably no more nutty than their other beliefs.

An amethyst crystal cluster.

In the weird word of the new age, crystals are of great significance and each is said to be imbued with its own unique properties, the amethyst known often as the “stone of the dreamers”, apparently because it can inspire positive thoughts and inspire one to go forth and turn one’s dreams into reality.  Long associated with February, the month the Romans dedicated to the water god Neptune, it’s the stone of Saint Valentine and faithful love, signifying ecclesiastical dignity as the Bishop’s Stone.  To new agers, it carries the energy of fire and passion, creativity and spirituality; yet bears the logic of temperance and sobriety and crystal specialists among the practitioners extol its properties:

"In the modern world, Amethyst’s healing properties and meanings are similar to their historic roots and it remains a remarkable stone of spirituality and contentment; known for its metaphysical abilities to still the mind and inspire an enhanced meditative state.  Its inherent high frequency purifies the aura of any negative energy or attachments, creating a protective shield of light around the body, allowing one to remain clear and centred while being open to spiritual direction.  Amethyst stimulates the Third Eye, Crown, and Etheric Chakras enhancing cognitive perception as well as accelerating the development of intuitive and psychic ability. It initiates wisdom and greater understanding and is a stone of comfort for those grieving the loss of a loved one.  Amethyst’s ability to expand the higher mind also enhances one’s creativity and passion, strengthening the imagination and intuition while refining the thinking processes. It helps in the assimilation of new ideas, putting thought into action, and brings projects to fruition; amethyst is also well-known as a talisman of focus and success.  Amethyst is an exceptional crystal for wearing on the body, for use in healing rituals, and for enhancing one’s environment.  It has however been known to fade if left in direct sunlight so care should be taken and it’s wise from time to time to clear its energies by holding the stone under running water for short periods.  Remarkably, an unpolished amethyst also has special properties which can recharge other crystals so keep one in a dark space and leave some crystals with it to re-energize."

Precious

Precious (pronounced presh-uhs)

(1) Of high price or great value; very valuable or costly.

(2) Highly esteemed for some spiritual, nonmaterial, or moral quality.

(3) Affectedly or excessively delicate, refined, or nice; fastidious in speech and manners.

(4) Anything though extreme (now rare and usually used only in clichéd forms).

(5) As precious and semi-precious, descriptors used in the gem-stone trade.

1250–1300: From the Middle English preciose (valuable, of great worth or price, costly) from the eleventh century Old French precios (precious, costly, honourable, of great worth), from the Latin pretiōsus (costly, valuable), the construct being pretium (price, value, worth) + ōsus or ous.  The Latin suffix -ōsus or ous (full, full of) was used to form adjectives from nouns, to denote possession or presence of a quality in any degree, commonly in abundance.  It was picked up in Middle English as -ous, from the Old French –ous & -eux.  The Modern French is précieux.

The meaning "over-refined" dates from the late fourteenth century and Dr Johnson noted it also had a secondary inverted sense of "worthless" whereas today, that’s a pure antonym.  As applied to a "beloved or dear person or object", meaning in that sense was first noted in 1706.  Related forms include preciously (adverb) & preciousness (noun).  The formal division of the gemstone market into precious and semi-precious dates from 1858, adopting the division introduced in the metals trade in 1776, precious metals then defined as gold, silver and sometimes platinum, the parameters being those rare enough to be used as a standard of value yet sufficiently abundant enough to permit use for coinage (the category of the semi-precious metal was introduced in 1818).  The idea of a person or object being precious in the sense of "beloved or highly valued” emerged early in the eighteenth century and was based on the earlier adjectival use.  The now rare noun preciosity (value, great worth, preciousness, quality of being precious) from the Old French preciosite and directly from the Medieval Latin pretiocitas (costliness, a costly thing), from pretiosus was from circa 1400.

The equally rare noun precieuse (pedantic woman, woman aiming at refined delicacy of language and taste) was in 1727 borrowed by English from French and was from the French précieuse, noun use of the feminine of précieux.  In English, it was best known as a stereotypical character in Molière's (Jean-Baptiste Poquelin, circa 1622-1763) 1659 comedy of manners Les Précieuses ridicules (The Affected Young Ladies).

Precious & semi-precious gemstones

Although the notion of a hierarchy pre-dates modern civilization, gemstones were first classified into the categories of precious and semi-precious in the mid-nineteenth century.  Originally an internal system of classification used by the gemstone trade, the distinction became popular and use widespread.

Precious was applied to four types of gems: diamonds, rubies, sapphires, and emeralds.  As early as the 1880s, some traders, doubtlessly seeking commercial advantage, applied the label to other stones including opal, jade and pearls but most of the industry regards this as mere puffery and use has never become persistent or generally accepted.  Nor have buyers been persuaded; diamonds, rubies, sapphires and emeralds account for well over ninety percent of the US$ dollar value of gemstone turnover; although not as widely applied, the four are known also as the cardinal stones.

Semi-precious is used for all varieties of gemstones not categorized as precious and any gemstone suitable for being used in personal adornment can be included. Semi-precious stones include gems fashioned from agate, amber, amethyst, aquamarine, aventurine, chalcedony, chrysocolla, chrysoprase, citrine, garnet, hematite, jade, jasper, jet, kunzite, lapis lazuli, malachite, moonstone, obsidian, onyx, peridot, rhodonite, sunstone, tiger's eye, tanzanite, topaz, turquoise, tourmaline and many other materials.

What can be misleading or confusing is the classification is inherently hierarchical and suggests correlation with cost.  An opal has been sold at US$5500 per carat and both jade cabochons and red beryls have traded US$10,000 a carat, all prices higher than that at which most precious stones sell.  Nor should precious imply scarcity, many semi-precious stones more rare than the precious four; red beryl, ammolite, benitoite, gem silica, demantoid garnet and tsavorite garnet are all found in fewer locations and produced in smaller quantities than any of the precious stones.

Such apparent anomalies are not unusual in classification systems, especially the older sets.  In geology the elements described as rare earths aren’t especially rare and in arboreal taxonomy, the soft, light balsa is a hardwood.  So, although not entirely arbitrary and meaningless, the classification of gemstones is best considered jargon of the trade although the American Gem Trade Association (AGTA) has in their code of ethics a clause that members should avoid the use of the term ”semi-precious” in describing gemstones.  The view of the association is that a term like semi-precious tends to devalue the objects and they’d prefer to have just about all gems thought of as “precious” (and therefore expensive).

Nor does the notion of the four precious gems have long history.  One stone regarded as precious since antiquity was amethyst but it fell from favor when large deposits were found in South America; the introduction of semi-precious into the lexicon corresponding with the new discoveries.  Of all stones, diamond is the most mythologized, mostly of modern origin.  Historically, colored stones such as ruby and sapphire were more highly valued than diamond, because diamond was not particularly rare.   That changed in the twentieth century when, counter-intuitively, large finds in South Africa created an abundant supply of gem-quality diamonds.  Until the South African boom, worldwide production of diamond amounted only to a few kilograms per year.  After huge South African mines opened in 1870, output began to be measured by the ton, causing such a glut the De Beers cartel was formed to control supply.  Quality diamonds are not at all scarce but De Beers’ control kept prices high and their near monopoly endured until 2005; even today they control over a third of world trade.  They also generated demand.  Until De Beers lavished spending on advertising, the diamond engagement ring was almost unknown; now, it’s an almost essential part of the marriage ritual.  The diamond's special position as a precious stone is due largely to monopoly economics and social engineering.

Ruby was from the Middle English ruby, rubie, rubi & rube, from the Old French rubi, from the Latin rubinus lapis (red stone) & rubeus (red) (feminine rubea, neuter rubeum) from rubeō (I am red, reddish).  The Latin rubeus was the source also of the Italian rubino and in related to ruber, from the primitive Indo-European root reudh- (red, ruddy).  It came to be applied as a name for a pure or somewhat crimson-red color from the 1570s.  There’s no etymological explanation for the Modern French rubis (ruby) beyond a assumption the plural was mistaken for the singular and caught on.

A pink to blood-red colored stone, the ruby, like the sapphire, is a variety of the mineral corundum (aluminium oxide).  The ruby’s deep red hue and vibrant glow is because of the presence of the element chromium but, more romantically, it carries the color of love and desire, a quality perhaps reflected in the prices the stone attracts at auction, the ruby tending to command the highest per-carat value of all colored gems.  A particular attraction of the pure ruby are the thin inclusions called needles which, when intersecting in groups, create a phenomenon called “silk” which softens the color causing the light to scatter in intricate patterns across the facets.  Ruby is the birthstone for July and the gem of the fifteenth and fortieth wedding anniversaries.

Emerald was from the early twelfth century Middle English emeraude, from the earlier Old French esmeraude, from the Medieval Latin esmaralda & esmaraldus, from the Classical Latin smaragdus, from the Ancient Greek σμάραγδος (smaragdos) (green gem or malachite), from the Semitic baraq (shine).  It was influenced by the Hebrew bareqeth (emerald) and the Arabic barq (lightning).  The Sanskrit maragdam (emerald) was from the same source, as was Persian zumurrud, from which Turkish gained zümrüd, source of Russian izumrud (emerald).  Historians caution that many mediæval references to the precious stones are not reliable except as a (sometimes vague) reference to color and this is said to apply especially to the emerald.  Ireland, came to be known as the Emerald Isle from 1795, the linkage because, with a high rainfall and a temperate climate, it’s a very green island.  The emerald was the favourite stone of Cleopatra, Queen of Egypt.

A cyclosilicate and a variety of the mineral beryl and colored green by tiny quantities of chromium and sometimes vanadium, emeralds are not an especially tough stone so their resistance to breakage is classified by cutters as poor.  For this reason, jewellers often mount emeralds differently, using the shape or thickness of the supporting metal to afford the stone greater protection.  The particular quality of the structure of the emerald is the often-seen intricate inclusion called the “jardin” (French for “garden”) which appear in multiples and demand a special technique from those cutting the stone; gem cutters thus developed the “emerald cut” which lends the cut stone its distinctive rectangular or square shape.  Those who cut gem stones are formerly styled lapidaries but the more evocative “cutters” seem both preferred and better.  Emerald is the birthstone for May and the gem of the twentieth and thirty-fifth wedding anniversaries.

Sapphire is from the mid-thirteenth century Middle English saphir, from the early thirteenth century Old French saphir, from the Latin sapphir, sappir & sapphīrus (blue), from the Ancient Greek σάπφειρος (sáppheiros) (precious stone, blue gem), from a Semitic language.  The Hebrew סַפִּיר‎ (sappī́r) was perhaps from a non-Semitic source such as the Sanskrit शनिप्रिय (śanipriya) (dark-colored stone, perhaps a sapphire or emerald, literally “dear to Saturn”, the construct being Saturn + priyah (precious).  Some historians have speculated the Ancient Greek sappheiros, although meaning “blue stone" apparently referred to the "lapis lazuli", the modern sapphire being instead signified by the Greek hyakinthos; not all concur.  The Latin sapphirus was the source also of the Spanish zafir and the Italian zaffiro.  Among Renaissance lapidaries, the sapphire was said to cure anger and stupidity and, as sapphiric & sapphirine, assumed the role of adjective since the fifteenth century.

The sapphire is another variety of the mineral corundum, consisting of aluminium oxide with trace quantities of elements such as iron, titanium, chromium, vanadium, or magnesium.  A notably hard stone, the sapphire is third in hardness behind the diamond and moissanite and has some useful optical qualities which is why it’s used also in non-ornamental applications, such as infrared devices, wristwatch crystals and ultra- thin electronic wafers, used as the insulating substrates of specific-purpose solid-state electronics such as integrated circuits and blue LEDs, the latter of such importance the discovery of the processes which permitted its creation gained the responsible scientists the 2014 Nobel Prize for physics.

Although most associated with hues of blue, pure sapphires are actually white, but in the presence of titanium and iron traces they acquire their velvety blue shade and there’s long been a speculation there’s some link between the name and the planet Saturn.  Apart from the classic blue, there are the rarer “fancy sapphires” which exist in just about every color from green to pink (even a highly prized black and there are “parti sapphires” which display two or more colors) except for red; what would technically otherwise be a red sapphire is actually a ruby.  Known as the gemstones of wisdom, truth and justice, sapphire is the birthstone for September and the gem of the fifth and forty-fifth wedding anniversaries.  A sapphire jubilee happens after sixty-five years.

Diamond was from the mid-fourteenth century Middle English diamaunt & dyamaunt, from the Old French diamant, from the Late Latin diamantem (nominative diamas), from the Vulgar Latin adiamantem, from the Classical Latin adamantem (nominative adamans) (the hardest metal, later "diamond"), from the Ancient Greek ἀδάμας (adámas) (genitive adamantos) (diamond).  Adamantos was used also as the name of the hypothetical hardest material, noun use of an adjective meaning "unbreakable, inflexible”).  It was cognate with the Spanish imán (magnet) & diamante, the French aimant (magnet) & diamant, the Italian diamante, and the Portuguese ímã (magnet) and diamante.

Lindsay Lohan's engagement ring.

From the early fifteenth century, in English also picked up another meaning which appeared also in Classical Latin: "a person of great worth".  In mathematics, later in the same century, diamond had come to describe a "geometric figure of four equal straight lines forming two acute and two obtuse angles.  It was used for one of the four suits in playing cards from the 1590s, having been an adjective to describe clusters of diamonds since the 1550s.  In baseball, the use to refer to the square space enclosed within the four bases dates from 1875.

Created when carbon is subject to immense pressure, diamond possess the highest shine of all transparent gemstones and is both the hardest known natural material on earth and the one with the highest thermal conductivity.  Able to be scratched only by another diamond, the cutting of the stones is also done with another diamond.  To determine their quality, diamonds like all precious stones are graded using the 4C system of connoisseurship: carat weight, color, clarity and cut. Diamond is the birthstone for April and the gem of the tenth and sixtieth wedding anniversaries.

Knight's Cross with Golden Oak Leaves, Swords, and Diamonds (1944).

A diamond cluster was an addition late in World War II to the Knight’s Cross, the highest decoration awarded to Germany’s military and paramilitary forces during the Third Reich.  The Knight's Cross with Oak Leaves, Swords, and Diamonds (Ritterkreuz des Eisernen Kreuzes mit Eichenlaub, Schwertern und Brillanten) was gazetted in July 1941.  A final and higher grade, the Knight's Cross with Golden Oak Leaves, Swords, and Diamonds (Ritterkreuz des Eisernen Kreuzes mit Goldenem Eichenlaub, Schwertern und Brillanten) was created in December 1944, intended (somewhat optimistically given that all professional soldiers expected that month's  Unternehmen Wacht am Rhein (Operation Watch on the Rhine and better known as the Ardennes Counteroffensive or the "Battle of the Bulge") to fail (as it did)) to be awarded after Germany's final victory the to the dozen most illustrious soldiers.  Only six were struck, one of which was actually awarded.