Category:Agate

A*gate", adv. Etym: [Pref. a- on + gate way.]

Defn: On the way; agoing; as, to be agate; to set the bells agate. [Obs.] Cotgrave.

Ag"ate, n. Etym: [F. agate, It. agata, L. achates, fr. Gr.

1. (Min.)

Defn: A semipellucid, uncrystallized variety of quartz, presenting various tints in the same specimen. Its colors are delicately arranged in stripes or bands, or blended in clouds.

Note: The fortification agate, or Scotch pebble, the moss agate, the clouded agate, etc., are familiar varieties.

2. (Print.)

Defn: A kind of type, larger than pearl and smaller than nonpareil; in England called ruby.

Note: This line is printed in the type called agate.

3. A diminutive person; so called in allusion to the small figures cut in agate for rings and seals. [Obs.] Shak.

4. A tool used by gold-wire drawers, bookbinders, etc.; -- so called from the agate fixed in it for burnishing.

Agate is a kind of chalcedony. Its colors are arranged in bands, but sometimes form spots, clouds and often stains like moss, when it is called the moss agate. By boiling the stone in a syrup and then in an acid the beautiful colors can be made brighter. Agates take a high polish and are cut into brooches, seals and bracelets, and used in mosaic work. They are found in Egypt, Germany, Scotland, South America, the United States and other parts of the world. In this country moss agates abound in Wyoming, Nevada and other points; small banded agates of great beauty are numerous on the shores of Lake Superior, and also in western Texas, where large specimens are plentiful. The agate marble is a name known to every boy, though most of these marbles are cheap glass imitations. Agate was prized by the ancients, mention being frequently made in history of onyx, the black and white banded agate, and of sardonyx, the red and white.

--The New Student's Reference Work (1914)

--- ---excerpt from the Illustrated Bible Dictionary.

Agate - (Heb. shebo ), a precious stone in the breast-plate of the high priest (Exodus 28:19; Exodus 39:12), the second in the third row. This may be the agate properly so called, a semi-transparent crystallized quartz, probably brought from Sheba, whence its name. In Isaiah 54:12 and Ezekiel 27:16, this word is the rendering of the Hebrew cadcod, which means "ruddy," and denotes a variety of minutely crystalline silica more or less in bands of different tints. This word is from the Greek name of a stone found in the river Achates in Sicily.