Earth & SkyGreek → English
Onyx
/ˈɒnɪks/noun
A banded variety of chalcedony, usually black with white layers, cut for jewellery and carving.
The Greek roots
ὄνυξ
ónyx
fingernail, claw
Literally: “fingernail”
Follow a root:ὄνυξ3 words
The story of the word
Greeks named the stone after the fingernail, because the pale streaked bands look like the pink-and-white of a nail seen against the light. Ovid tells a story of Cupid clipping Venus's nails while she slept, the parings turning to stone. The same root gives onycho- in medicine, as in onychomycosis, a nail fungus.
- How it travelled
- Ancient Greek → Latin → Old French → English
- First recorded
- 13th century
Same family
onychomycosissardonyx
In a sentence
The chess set was cut from onyx, each black square catching a thin white seam.