lapidist means A lapidary (“person who cuts and polishes, engraves, or deals in gems and precious stones; expert in gems and precious stones”). Lexicurio rates it Sui generis — a strength score of 85 out of 100.
Why this word is great
LAPIDIST — [Noun] A person who cuts, polishes, engraves, or deals in gems and precious stones. From the Latin lapis, lapidis ("a stone") and the English suffix -ist ("one who practices"). Unlike a gemsmith, who concerns himself with the metal setting, or a geologist, who studies the stone's scientific provenance, the lapidist is a practitioner of patient, subtractive alchemy focused solely on the raw gem itself. It is the water-cooled whirr of a diamond saw parting rough matrix; the patient, revolving whisper of a wheel coaxing a window of fire from a dull carbon crystal; the precise, whispering scrape of a burin incising a minute coat-of-arms into a carnelian seal. He is a translator of mute geology into a lexicon of light, where beauty is not made, but carefully, painstakingly uncovered and released.
noun
- A lapidary (“person who cuts and polishes, engraves, or deals in gems and precious stones; expert in gems and precious stones”).“the factitious Stones of Chymists in invitation being easily detected by any ordinary Lapidist”