Sterling Silver Jewelry: Etymology Of Amethyst Part II

The ancient Hebrew word for Amethyst was ‘Ahlamah,’ this was derived from the word ‘Halom’ meaning ‘To Dream.’ There can be little doubt that this etymology shows a strong spiritual link between the gem and its believed powers to create visions.

In the same way the Greek ‘Amethystos’ was derived from words associated with the gems powers to prevent intoxication: ‘A,’ meaning ‘Not,’ + ‘Methyskein,’ meaning ‘Make drunk.’ This last word was derived from ‘Methys,’ meaning ‘Wine.’ The Greek compound of these words became ‘Amethystos’ which later was interpreted in Latin as ‘Amethystus,’ ‘Ametiste’ in Old French and finally ‘Amethyst’ in Middle English.

Although the exact beginning of the word Amethyst, and its connection to wine and curing drunkenness, cannot be pinpointed it must have been somewhere prior to 300 B.C. and the Septuagint who used the Greek ‘Amethystos,’ in their translation of the Old Testament. The association of Amethyst to wine may well have originated from this classical Greek tale of Bacchus, also known as Dionysus god of ecstasy, wine and the vine.

“The god Bacchus, offended at some neglect that he had suffered, was determined to avenge himself, and declared that the first person he should meet, when he and his train passed along, should be devoured by his tigers. Fate willed it that this luckless mortal was a beautiful and pure maiden named Amethyst, who was on her way to worship at the shrine of Diana. As the ferocious beasts sprang toward her, she sought the protection of the goddess, and was saved from a worse fate by being turned into a pure white stone. Recognizing the miracle and repenting of his cruelty, Bacchus poured the juice of the grape as a libation over the petrified body of the maiden, thus giving to the stone the beautiful violet hue that so charms the beholder's eye.”

In the first century A.D. Pliny the ‘Elder’, author of the world’s first encyclopedia ‘Natural History’ gives a more practical origin and meaning behind Amethysts name: “The name which these stones* (Pliny believed there were four types of Amethyst) bear, originates, it is said, in the peculiar tint of their brilliancy, which, after closely approaching the color of wine, passes off into a violet without being fully pronounced; or else, according to some authorities, in the fact that in their purple there is something that falls short of a fiery color, the tints fading off and inclining to the color of wine.”

Next Pliny continues on Amethysts’ supposed curative powers: “The falsehoods of the magicians would persuade us that these stones are preventive of inebriety, and that it is from this that they have derived their name… statements which, in my opinion, they cannot have committed to writing without a feeling of contempt and derision for the rest of mankind.”

Some two thousand years later J.F. Kunz, chief mineralogist for Tiffany’s, in his book ‘The Curious Lore Of Precious Stones’ gives a less skeptical and very credible reasoning behind Amethysts name and associated powers: “From the various descriptions of this stone given by ancient writers, it appears that one of the varieties was probably the purple almandine or Indian garnet, and it is not improbable that we have here the reason for the name amethyst and for the supposed virtue of the stone in preserving from drunkenness. For if water were poured into a vessel made of a reddish stone, the liquid would appear like wine, and could nevertheless be drunk with impunity.”

This article was written by David-John Turner for the Silvershake website, an online retailer of silver jewelry at wholesale prices. Purchase today and get gemstone silver jewelry worth up to $60...Free!

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An Introduction To The Definition And Etymology Of Silver

Ancient Incas believed the Moon to shed tears of it, the Shetland Celts thought the northern lights contained threads of it and the early Pacific islanders of the Southern hemisphere alleged that all the stars in the heavens were composed of it.

Silver, second only to gold as a popular symbol of status and wealth, is one of the most romantic and sought after of all the precious metals captivating mankind with its lustrous beauty from the beginning of time.

Silver has called to man, compelling him to search out its superior properties, to the most distant and treacherous corners of the globe. In return for silver’s riches man elevated the precious metal amongst the heavens, appropriating its qualities to the Gods, Planets, even naming a country after it: Argentina.

Silver, offering the best value of all precious metals, has seen ages come and go. But unlike gold, Silver has gained popularity not just as a item of adornment, but also as man’s best friend, lending its superior strength, malleability and ductility to a thousand and one purposes: Photography, Money, Health, Transport, Communication, Utility…

Silver (Sil-ver) n: A precious metal with the highest thermal and electrical conductivity of all metals used in a variety of purities in the production of jewelry, tableware, photography and coins.

In its purest form this lustrous metal, like gold, is very soft. For this reason Silver is usually alloyed with other metals such as copper, as is the case in sterling silver jewelry, to make it more robust.

• Fine Silver: 99.9% Silver.



• Thai Karen Hill-Tribe Silver: 99.5% Silver.



• Britannia Silver: 95.84% Silver with up to 4.16% copper.



• Mexican Silver: Usually 95% Silver and 5% Copper.



• Sterling Silver Jewelry: 92.5% Silver, with copper making up the remaining 7.5%.

Silver is a chemical element denoted on the periodic table by the symbol ‘Ag’. In etymological terms this symbol is derived from the early Proto-Indo-European language root word ‘Arg'- meaning ‘White’, or ‘To shine’. This root word is found in ancient:

· Greek – Argos.
· Latin – Argentums.
· Celtic – Argent.
· Sanskrit – Arjuna.

The only languages that lacked this root are the Germano-Balto-Slavic languages that used another stem for Silver thought to be based on a river in Lycia, modern day Turkey:

· Slavic – Sirebro.
· Baltic – Silabr.
· Germanic – Silbr.

The Germanic, or Teutonic, word is the root of the Anglo-Saxon branch word of ‘Silver’ used today.

Read The Etymology Of Sterling

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Amethyst The Church And The Color Purple

One of the world’s most popular gems, Amethyst is classified as a semi-precious gem. However, from pre-biblical times in ancient Mesopotamia, right up to the European Middle Ages, Amethyst was regarded as a precious gem. During the latter part of this period Diamond, Sapphire, Emerald, Ruby and Amethyst were attributed the joint title of the five ‘Cardinal Gems.’ Amethysts inclusion into the ‘Cardinal Gem’ set was due to the association made by Pharaohs, Kings, and of course Cardinals, who all held Amethyst’s purple color representative of the highest echelons of society.

By today’s standards the color purple is commonplace, and is easily bought as tincture and paint from any local hardware store. However, prior to the wonders of modern science purple dye was the single most rarest nuance available in nature. According to the Greek philosopher and tutor of ‘Alexander The Great,’ Aristotle: “In it’s purest form it possesses a value ten to twenty times its weight in gold!”

Legend has it that the first purple dye was discovered by Herakle-Melqart (city god of Tyr) who was walking along the Levantine shoreline with the nymph Tyrus. His dog found a Murex snail and devoured it, which left a beautiful purple color around the dog's mouth. Tyrus saw the color and told Herakle-Melqart she would not accept his courtship until he brought her a robe of the same color. So he collected the Murex shells, extracted the dye, and tinted the first garment purple.

The Levantine coast where they walked was an area that today encapsulates the city of Sur in modern Lebanon, known in pre-biblical times as Tyr. For thousands of years, this part of Lebanon was known as Canaan or Phoenicia, which literally translated meant ‘The Land Of Purple.’

Although the earliest purple dyes were found in Minoan pottery glazes on the island of Crete, circa 1900 B.C., Phoenicia and its principal city of Tyr were the first to exploit the Murex’s purple dye commercially. Tyrian texts mention the Murex’s dye as early as 1600 B.C., from where it became Tyr’s principal source of income for 100’s of years. It is from this geographical origin that we get the name ‘Tyrian Purple.’ It should be noted that by today’s standards the ancient purples, known as porpora, were more red than purple. They varied from a fiery red, to viola and an almost red-black.

The Murex dye industry proved to be so lucrative to the Tyrians that the shell was adopted as a symbol of Tyr appearing on their earliest coinage alongside their city god, Melqart. Over the course of time, and through extensive trade networks stretching from Babylonia, Egypt, Persia, and Rome the Murex’s highly coveted dye became synonymous with wealth and an exotic trade rarity reserved for the rich.

Of all countries that Phoenicia was to trade the Murex dye with it was Italy who would become her most loyal customer. The Phoenicians first traded in Italy with the Etruscans, a society of artisans particularly skilled in the art of jewelry fabrication. However, it was with the creation of Imperial Rome by Romulus in 753 B.C. that the Murex’s purple dye began to be synonymous with power, wealth and position.

Pliny the Elder, author of the world’s first Encyclopedia in the 1st century A.D. wrote: “I find that, from the very first, purple has been in use at Rome, but that Romulus employed it for the trabea…” The trabea was similar to the toga, and decorated with purple stripes. There were various kinds of trabea; one was completely purple and sacred to the gods, another was purple and white and was the royal robe worn by kings such as Romulus and later Tullus Hostilius. Pliny continues: “As to the toga prætexta (a toga bordered with purple, worn by magistrates and free-born children) and the laticlave vestment (a purple badge of the senatorial order), it is a fact well ascertained, that Tullus Hostilius was the first king who made use of them…” From this use as a status symbol in early Imperial Rome it was a matter of time until purple assumed another moniker, ‘Imperial Purple.’

Hundreds of years later, with the demise of the Roman Empire and the emergence of the Byzantine Empire, the usage of ‘Imperial Purple’ and ‘Tyrian Purple’ had been strictly reserved for nobility and the church. By the fall of Byzantium in 1453 the Murex shell had all but vanished, and in 1464 the Pope Paul II introduced the ‘Cardinal's Purple,’ authorizing the use of cochineal insect to dye cardinals' and archbishops' robes instead. The ‘Cardinal Purple’ of the cochineal was much closer to what we call purple than the Murex’s ‘Tyrian’ or ‘Imperial’ variety, and led to our modern interpretation of purple being a mixture of red and blue.

From this point in time onwards Amethyst, echoing the same purple coloration, became a regular feature in the ornamentation of Rome’s holy men, worn as rings and amulets as a sign of pious virtue. It is from these various associations that Amethyst, with its emblematic colors of the Roman Catholic Church, took its place amongst diamond, sapphire, ruby and emerald as a ‘Cardinal Gem.’

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Written for SilverShake, an online retailer of amethyst silver jewelry and sterling silver jewelry at wholesale prices. Purchase today and get silver jewelry worth up to $60...Free!