onyx

English

Etymology

Before 1300 as onix, in about 1250 as oneche, from Old French oniche or onix, from Latin onyx, from Ancient Greek ὄνυξ (onyx).

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈɔnɪks/

Noun

onyx (countable and uncountable, plural onyxes)

1. (mineralogy) A banded variety of chalcedony, a cryptocrystalline form of quartz.
2. A jet-black color, named after the gemstone.

   onyx colour:

Translations

a banded variety of chalcedony

• Arabic: جَزْع‎ (jazʿ)
• Basque: onize
• Catalan: ònix m
• Chinese:

  Mandarin: 縞瑪瑙 (zh), 缟玛瑙 (zh) (gǎomǎnǎo), 紅璧璽 (zh), 红璧玺 (zh) (hóngbìxǐ)

• Czech: onyx (cs) m
• Danish: onyks
• Dutch: onyx (nl) m
• Finnish: onyksi
• French: onyx (fr) m
• Galician: ónix f
• German: Onyx (de) m
• Hebrew: שוהם‎ m
• Hindi: सुलैमानी पत्थर (sulaimānī patthar)
• Ido: onixo (io)
• Italian: onice f
• Japanese: オニキス (onikisu), オニックス (onikkusu)
• Korean: 오닉스 (onigseu)
• Latin: onyx

• Latvian: onikss
• Lithuanian: oniksas
• Maori: onika
• Norwegian: onyx m
• Oriya: kwaja pathara [script needed]
• Persian: عقیق سلیمانی‎ (aqiq-e soleymâni)
• Polish: onyks m
• Portuguese: ónix (pt)
• Romanian: onix (ro) m
• Russian: о́никс (ru) m (óniks)
• Serbo-Croatian:

  Cyrillic: оникс m

  Roman: oniks (sh) m

• Slovene: óniks (sl) m
• Spanish: ónix (es) f, ónice (es) f, ónique (es) f
• Swahili: sardoniki
• Tagalog: onise
• Turkish: oniks (tr)
• Urdu: سلیمانی پتھر‎ (sulaimānī patthar)

Adjective

onyx (not comparable)

1. jet-black
   • 1611, Bible (King James Version):
     , Genesis, 2:12

     And the gold of that land is good: there is bdellium and the onyx stone.

   • 1922, Michael Arlen, “3/7/2”, in “Piracy”: A Romantic Chronicle of These Days^[1]:

     There was no moon, only stars set brilliantly in the soft black onyx of the sky : a black night and very silent on Cimiez ; and a black and silent prospect from the verandah […]

See also

• sardonyx

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Latin

Etymology

From Ancient Greek ὄνυξ (ónux, “nail”).

Pronunciation

• (Classical) IPA^(key): /ˈo.nyks/, [ˈɔ.nʏks]

Noun

onyx m (genitive onychis); third declension

1. onyx, yellow marble
2. A yellowish precious stone
3. The female of a mussel of the scallop species

Inflection

Third declension.

Case	Singular	Plural
nominative	onyx	onychēs
genitive	onychis	onychum
dative	onychī	onychibus
accusative	onychem	onychēs
ablative	onyche	onychibus
vocative	onyx	onychēs

References

• onyx in Charlton T. Lewis and Charles Short (1879) A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
• onyx in Charlton T. Lewis (1891) An Elementary Latin Dictionary, New York: Harper & Brothers
• onyx in Harry Thurston Peck, editor (1898) Harper's Dictionary of Classical Antiquities, New York: Harper & Brothers
• onyx in William Smith et al., editor (1890) A Dictionary of Greek and Roman Antiquities, London: William Wayte. G. E. Marindin

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Portuguese

Noun

onyx m (plural onyx)

1. Obsolete spelling of ónix (used in Portugal until September 1911 and died out in Brazil during the 1920s).