lapidary means of or pertaining to gems and precious stones, or the art of cutting or otherwise working them. It carries an Arena rating of 1634, earned across 3 head-to-head judged battles.
Among words judged in Lexicurio's Arena, lapidary ranks #984 of 17,128 for Most Ponderous Words, #1,439 of 17,130 for Most Beautiful Words, #1,560 of 17,134 for Most Malleable Words, #1,674 of 17,143 for Best Fossil-Poetry Words.
lapidary is pronounced /ˈlæpɪdəɹi/.
Why “lapidary” is a great word
LAPIDARY — [Adjective, Noun] As an adjective, it describes the cutting and polishing of gemstones or a prose style of austere, monumental elegance; as a noun, it is an artisan who practices this precise craft. From Latin lapidārius ("of stone, stony; stonecutter"), from lapis, lapid- ("stone; precious stone"). First attested in English in the late 14th century. Unlike "succinct," which emphasizes brevity and clarity, or "jeweler," which broadly denotes a dealer in finished adornments, "lapidary" conveys a specific, enduring polish—both of mineral and of language. It is the diamond-cutter’s breathless focus as the cleaving blade meets the grain, the cool, exacting pressure of the engraver’s burin scoring an epitaph into granite, and the final, flawless sentence that seems not written but incised—a testament to the human will to make even thought permanent against the erosion of time.
Etymology
The noun is derived from Middle English lapidari, lapidarie (“person who cuts, polishes, or engraves precious stones; expert in precious stones; treatise on precious stones”) [and other forms], from Old French lapidaire (“gemsmith, lapidary”) (modern French lapidaire), or from its etymon Latin lapidārius (“(adjective) of stones, stony; (noun) stonecutter”), from lapidis (the genitive singular of lapis (“stone; (poetic) jewel, precious stone”), possibly from Pre-Greek or Proto-Indo-European *lep- (“to peel”)) + -ārius (suffix forming adjectives). Noun senses 3.2 (“jewellery”) and 3.3 (“treatise on precious stones”) are derived from Latin lapidāria or lapidārium, a noun use of the neuter plural or genitive plural respectively of lapidāris (“of stone”, adjective), from lapidis (the genitive s
adj
- Of or pertaining to gems and precious stones, or the art of cutting or otherwise working them.
- Of or pertaining to monumental stones, and particularly to the art of inscribing them.
- engraved on stone.
- Senses relating to speech or writing.; Pertaining to a way of speaking which is circumlocutional, is excessively precise, and is multifaceted in the construction of propositions.
- Senses relating to speech or writing.; Of a piece of writing or a writing style: characteristic of or suitable for an inscription; embodying the precision and refinement of inscriptions on monuments; concise and stately.e.g.“His grand principle is, that lapidary inscriptions, of what sort soever, should be Historical rather than Lyrical.” — 1831, Thomas Carlyle, “Getting Under Way”, in Sartor Resartus: The Life and Opinions of Herr Teufelsdröckh. […], London: Chapman and Hall, […], →OCLC, 2nd book, page 91:
- Of or pertaining to stones in general.
- Succinct, laconic.
noun
- A person who cuts and polishes, engraves, or deals in gems and precious stones.
- The field in which such a person works, a subfield of gemology.
- An expert in gems and precious stones; a connoisseur of lapidary work.
- Gems and precious stones collectively; jewellery.
- A treatise on (precious) stones.
Definitions & examples from Wiktionary (CC BY-SA 3.0).
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