obsidian

Etymology

It is borrowed from Latin obsidiānus (“containing or made of obsidian”),^[2][3][4][5] possibly also through French obsidiane, recorded in 1600.^[6][2] The Latin form is a misreading of obsiānus, as in the phrase obsiānus lapis (“the stone of Obsius”):^[4][3][6][7] Pliny's “Natural History” names a Roman called Obsius as the man who found this or a similar stone in Ethiopia.^[3][6][7][2] Hoad and Weekley put the error in the earliest printed editions of Pliny,^[5][8][9] and Hendrickson notes that this explains the puzzling d of the word.^[9] The OED points out that the forms with d (the name Obsidius and the adjective with -d-) already occur as variants in manuscripts of Pliny,^[2] and Merriam-Webster likewise calls them manuscript variants.^[10][11] The Shorter Oxford derives the form without d from a Greek name for a black stone, named after its supposed discoverer.^[12] The undistorted Latin word had already been borrowed as Middle English obsianus, the name of a glassy green or black stone in Trevisa's translation of Bartholomaeus Anglicus (before 1398);^[2][13] Middle French had obsidien in Du Pinet's translation of Pliny (1562).^[2]

Earliest recorded meaning

As an adjective, containing or made of obsidian: 1601, in P. Holland's translation of Pliny, which speaks of glasses called Obsidiana because they resemble the stone "which one Obsidius found in Æthyopia".^[2] As a noun the word is recorded from 1656, in Blount's Glossographia,^[6] and Etymonline gives the 1650s.^[3]

Semantic evolution

The word was at first a learned name taken from Pliny,^[2][7] and Hoad notes that it first appeared in the phrase obsidian stone.^[5][14] As a term of mineralogy for the natural volcanic glass it is dated by the OED and Merriam-Webster from 1794.^[2][10] From 1906 the adjective also describes things that look like obsidian, glassy or lustrous black, and is used figuratively;^[2] Wiktionary notes a poetic use of it simply for "black", and a noun sense for a bluish-black colour.^[1]

Timeline

• 1601 – adjective, containing or made of obsidian.^[2]
• 1656 – noun, the volcanic glass, in Blount's Glossographia.^[6] The OED and Merriam-Webster date the noun from 1794.^[2][10]
• 1906 – adjective, glassy or lustrous black, also figurative.^[2]

Meanings

Noun

1. A hard, usually black or banded volcanic glass formed when lava cools too quickly to crystallize, breaking with smooth curved surfaces; also called Iceland agate.^{[15][10][2][16]}
2. A slightly bluish black, the colour of this stone.^[1]

Adjective

1. Made of, containing or resembling obsidian: an obsidian blade.^[2]
2. Glassy, lustrous black, also figuratively: the obsidian surface of the lake at midnight.^[2][1]

References

1. ^ a b c d e Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ a b c d Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
4. ^ a b The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
5. ^ a b c Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
6. ^ a b c d e Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
7. ^ a b c Skeat, Walter W. (1911), A Concise Etymological Dictionary of the English Language, new ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press
8. ^ Weekley, Ernest (1921), An Etymological Dictionary of Modern English, London: John Murray
9. ^ a b Hendrickson, Robert (2008), The Facts on File Encyclopedia of Word and Phrase Origins, 4th ed., New York: Facts on File
10. ^ a b c d Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
11. ^ Gove, Philip Babcock, ed. (1961), Webster's Third New International Dictionary of the English Language, Unabridged, Springfield, Mass.: G. & C. Merriam
12. ^ Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
13. ^ Dictionary.com Unabridged (2016), based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, New York: Random House
14. ^ Simpson, J. A.; Weiner, E. S. C., eds. (1989), The Oxford English Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press
15. ^ Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins
16. ^ The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (1992), 3rd ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin