Earth & SkyGreek → English
Chrysoprase
/ˈkrɪsəpreɪz/noun
An apple-green variety of chalcedony coloured by nickel.
The Greek roots
χρυσός
chrysós
gold
πράσον
práson
leek
Literally: “golden leek”
The story of the word
Gold plus leek: the Greeks named the stone for a leek green shot through with yellow. What actually produces the colour is nickel, which no ancient could have known and which is why the best material comes from weathered nickel deposits. Chrysoprase is another of the twelve stones listed in the foundations of the New Jerusalem, the passage through which a good half of the mineral vocabulary reached medieval English.
- How it travelled
- Ancient Greek → Latin → Old French → English
- First recorded
- 14th century
Same family
chrysalischrysanthemumchrysolite
In a sentence
A thin seam of chrysoprase runs through the grey host rock.