alabaster

alabaster
/al"euh bas'teuhr, -bah'steuhr/, n.
1. a finely granular variety of gypsum, often white and translucent, used for ornamental objects or work, such as lamp bases, figurines, etc.
2. Also called Oriental alabaster. a variety of calcite, often banded, used or sold as alabaster.
adj. Also, alabastrine /al'euh bas"trin/.
3. made of alabaster: an alabaster column.
4. resembling alabaster; smooth and white: her alabaster throat.
[1350-1400; < L < Gk alábastros; r. ME alabastre < MF < L]

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Fine-grained gypsum that has been used for centuries for statuary, carvings, and other ornaments.

It normally is snow-white and translucent but can be artificially dyed; it may be made opaque and similar in appearance to marble by heat treatment. Florence, Livorno, Milan, and Berlin are important centres of the alabaster trade. The alabaster of the ancients was a brown or yellow onyx marble.

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      fine-grained, massive gypsum (q.v.) that has been used for centuries for statuary, carvings, and other ornaments. It normally is snow-white and translucent but can be artificially dyed; it may be made opaque and similar in appearance to marble by heat treatment. Florence, Livorno, and Milan, in Italy, and Berlin are important centres of the alabaster trade. The alabaster of the ancients was a brown or yellow onyx marble.

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Universalium. 2010.

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