OBSIDIAN • FREE TRANSLATOR.ORG • Definition of Obsidian

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/əbsˈɪdiən/ Listen

Obsidian

noun

Acid or granitic glass formed by the rapid cooling of lava without crystallization; usually dark, but transparent in thin pieces.

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Etymology of 'Obsidian'

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"Obsidian" Quotes from Famous Books

... the prefect was as stern as it was humane: "I should wish my sheep to be sheared, but not to be flayed." On the death of one of the prefects, there was found among his property at Rome a statue of Menelaus, carved in Ethiopian obsidian, which had been used in the religious ceremonies in the temple of Heliopolis, and Tiberius returned it to the priests of that city as its rightful owners. Another proof of the equal justice with which this province was governed was to be seen in the buildings ...

— History Of Egypt From 330 B.C. To The Present Time, Volume 11 (of 12) • S. Rappoport

... That's an obsidian arrowhead. The Bannacks and Shoshonis got that black, glassy stuff at one place—the Obsidian Cliff, in Yellowstone Park! Those old trails that Lewis saw to the south were trails that crossed the Divide south of here. They put the Indians ...

— The Young Alaskans on the Missouri • Emerson Hough

... passed along a broad walk winding through low shrubs and lined on each side with uniform stones of various colors that were like jewels. These boundaries were no doubt of choice fragments of finely polished chalcedony and jasper and obsidian; they were red and yellow and black and, at regular intervals, a pale exquisite blue which in the rays of the lamps were as beautiful as turquoises. They passed about a screen of dwarf cedars and came upon a tiny lakelet across which a boy might have hurled a stone; ...

— Daughter of the Sun - A Tale of Adventure • Jackson Gregory

Words linked to "Obsidian" : volcanic glass