basanites

Forms

basanītēs m (genitive basanītae); first declension^[1] Pliny has the accusative basanītēn.^[2] It is also used with lapis: basanītēs lapis.^[3]

Etymology

It is borrowed from Ancient Greek βασανίτης (basanítēs) (understood with λίθος (líthos, “stone”)),^[4][5] from βάσανος (básanos, “touchstone”).^[3][1][6] Köbler and Etymonline give the Greek word an Egyptian origin, and Etymonline reports Beekes's view that it reached Greece through Lydia.^[4][6]

Earliest recorded meaning

Pliny the Elder is the first to use it, for a very hard stone on which gold and silver were tested.^[5][3][4]

Semantic evolution

Pliny also says the stone was used for whetstones and, in medicine, for mortars.^[3] Isidore of Seville describes the same touchstone.^[3][7] The OLD takes it to be a kind of quartz, probably the stone now called basanite;^[5] Georges thought it was probably basalt.^[1] In one passage of Pliny the manuscripts corrupted the name to basaltēs, the source of the modern word basalt.^[6][2]

Timeline

• 23/24–79 AD – Pliny the Elder describes it as a touchstone.^[5][4]
• c. 560–636 AD – Isidore of Seville describes it.^[3][4]

Meanings

Noun

1. A touchstone, a very hard dark stone used to test gold and silver; also used for whetstones and mortars.^[5][3][1]

Related words

• basaltēs
• English basanite

References

1. ^ a b c d Georges, Karl Ernst (1913–1918), Ausführliches lateinisch-deutsches Handwörterbuch, 8th ed., ed. Heinrich Georges, Hannover; Leipzig: Hahn
2. ^ a b Gaffiot, Félix (2016), Dictionnaire latin-français, new ed. by Gérard Gréco et al. (Gaffiot 2016), online ed.
3. ^ a b c d e f g Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
4. ^ a b c d e Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
5. ^ a b c d e Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
6. ^ a b c Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
7. ^ Isidore of Seville, Etymologiarum sive Originum libri XX, ed. W. M. Lindsay (Oxford, 1911).