onyx

English

Etymology

From Middle English onix (c. 1300), earlier oniche (c. 1250), from Old French oniche or onix, from Latin onyx, from Ancient Greek ὄνυξ (ónux, “onyx”). Doublet of unguis.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈɒnɪks/

• Audio (UK)

  (file)

• Rhymes: -ɒnɪks

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:  

3. Any of various lycaenid butterflies of the genus Horaga.

Black banded onyx

Translations

a banded variety of chalcedony

• Arabic: جَزْع‎ (jazʿ)
• Armenian: ոնիքս (onikʿs)
• Basque: onize
• Bulgarian: оникс m (oniks)
• 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
• Estonian: oonüks
• Finnish: onyksi (fi)
• French: onyx (fr) m
• Galician: ónix f
• Georgian: please add this translation if you can
• German: Onyx (de) m
• Hebrew: שוהם‎ m
• Hindi: सुलैमानी पत्थर (sulaimānī patthar)
• Ido: onixo (io)
• Italian: onice (it) f
• Japanese: オニキス (onikisu), オニックス (onikkusu)
• Korean: 오닉스 (onikseu)

• Latin: onyx m or f
• Latvian: onikss
• Lithuanian: oniksas
• Maori: onika
• Norwegian: onyx m
• Occitan: please add this translation if you can
• Oriya: [script needed] (kwaja pathara)
• Persian: عقیق سلیمانی‎ (aqiq-e soleymâni)
• Polish: onyks (pl) 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: oniks
• Turkish: oniks (tr)
• Ukrainian: о́нікс m (óniks)
• Urdu: سلیمانی پتھر‎ (sulaimānī patthar)
• Welsh: onics m

Adjective

onyx (not comparable)

1. jet-black
   • 1611, The Holy Bible, […] (King James Version), London: […] Robert Barker, […], OCLC 964384981:

     , 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/, [ˈɔnʏks̠]
• (Ecclesiastical) IPA^(key): /ˈo.niks/, [ˈɔːniks]

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

Declension

Third-declension noun.

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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Middle English

Noun

onyx (uncountable)

1. Alternative form of oniche

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Portuguese

Noun

onyx m (invariable)

1. Obsolete spelling of ónix (used in Portugal until September 1911 and in Brazil until the 1940s).