英和和英

語源

In Florio’s A World of Words 1598 as opale, from French opale, from Latin opalus, from Byzantine Greek ὀπάλλιος (opállios), from Sanskrit उपल (upala, “gem, stone”), from उपरि (upári, “the upper millstone”). Distantly related to over.

発音

• (英国発音) IPA: /ˈəʊpəl/
• (米国発音) IPA: /ˈoʊpəl/
• 韻: -əʊpəl

名詞

opal (plural opals)

1. (mineralogy) A mineral consisting, like quartz, of silica, but inferior to quartz in hardness and specific gravity, of the chemical formula SiO₂·nH₂O.
   1. (gemology) A precious gem, an iridescent gemstone found in the opal-silica mineral substrate (potch)
   • 2012 March, Lee A. Groat, “Gemstones”, in American Scientist‎, volume 100, number 2, archived from the original on 14 June 2012, page 128:

     Although there are dozens of different types of gems, among the best known and most important are […] . (Common gem materials not addressed in this article include amber, amethyst, chalcedony, garnet, lazurite, malachite, opals, peridot, rhodonite, spinel, tourmaline, turquoise and zircon.)

2. The colour of opal: any shade of blue with bright flecks of other colours, such as white, yellow, and red.
   • 1889, Rudyard Kipling, “Only A Subaltern”, in Under the Deodars, Boston: The Greenock Press, published 1899, page 141:

     The witchery of the dawn turned the grey river-reaches to purple, gold, and opal; and it was as though the lumbering dhoni crept across the splendors of a new heaven.

3. (biology, genetics, biochemistry) A colloquial name used in molecular biology referring to a particular stop codon sequence, "UGA."
4. Any of various lycaenid butterflies of the genus Nesolycaena.

派生語

参照

Further reading

• David Barthelmy (1997–2026), “Opal”, in Webmineral Mineralogy Database.
• “opal”, in Mindat.org, Keswick, Va.: Hudson Institute of Mineralogy, 2000–2026.

アナグラム

• OLAP, POLA, Palo, alop, aplo-, pola