tourmaline

English

Bi-colored tourmaline crystal, 2 cm long.

Etymology

Either directly from Sinhalese tóramalli 'carnelian', or via a cognate: German Turmalin, Portuguese tormalina, or French tourmaline

Pronunciation

IPA^(key): /ˈtʊəɹməliːn/

Noun

tourmaline (plural tourmalines)

1. A complex black or dark coloured borosilicate mineral, compounded with various chemical elements and considered a semi-precious stone.
   • 2012 March 1, Lee A. Groat, “Gemstones”, in American Scientist^[1], volume 100, number 2, 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. A transparent gemstone cut from it.

Derived terms

Derived terms

• blue tourmaline
• canary tourmaline
• chrome tourmaline
• green tourmaline
• multicolored tourmaline

• rubellite tourmaline
• Paraiba tourmaline
• shocking pink tourmaline
• yellow tourmaline

Related terms

Related terms

• dravite
• indigolite
• luxulyanite
• Mohrenkopf

• rubellite
• schorl
• verdelite

Translations

both senses

• Chinese:

  Mandarin: 電氣石 (zh), 电气石 (zh) (diànqìshí)

• Czech: turmalín m
• Dutch: toermalijn (nl) m
• Finnish: turmaliini
• French: tourmaline (fr)
• Galician: turmaline f

• German: Turmalin (de)
• Japanese: トルマリン (torumarin)
• Persian: ترمالین (tormālīn)
• Portuguese: turmalina (pt)
• Russian: турмали́н (ru) m (turmalín)
• Spanish: turmalina (es) f
• Swedish: turmalin c, askblåsare c

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French

Noun

tourmaline f (plural tourmalines)

1. tourmaline

Further reading

• “tourmaline” in le Trésor de la langue française informatisé (The Digitized Treasury of the French Language).