lapidary, a. and n.
(ˈlæpɪdərɪ)
Forms: 4–5 lapidaire, 4–6 Sc. lapidar, 4–7 lapidarie, -ye, (5 lapadary, lipidarye), 7 lapidare, -ery, 6– lapidary.
[ad. L. lapidārius, f. lapid-, lapis stone. Cf. F. lapidaire. In B. 2 and 3 ad. L. lapidārium or L. type *lapidāria.]
A. adj.
1. Concerned with stones. rare exc. in lapidary bee (see quots. 1854–68).
| 1831–57 De Quincey Dr. Parr Wks. VI. 164 That lapidary style of retort in which their wrath has been trained to express itself. 1835 Court Mag. VI. 166/2 An Irish pavior expressed an anxiety to enter into partnership with a friend, who likewise followed the same lapidary profession. 1854 H. Miller Sch. & Schm. (1858) 68 The lapidary red-tipped bees, that built amid the recesses of ancient cairns, and in old dry stone walls. 1868 Wood Homes without H. vii. 138 The Lapidary Bee (Bombus lapidarius). |
2. a. Of an inscription, etc.: Engraved on stone, esp. monumental stones. b. Of style, etc.: Characteristic of or suitable for monumental inscriptions.
| 1724 Life of Dr. Barwick 40 note, See a farther Account of him..in Dr. Jenkins's Lapidary Verses prefix'd to those Sermons. 1730 A. Gordon Maffei's Amphith. 147 These Words..expressed, in the Lapidary Stile, that it was built from its very Foundation. 1775 Johnson in Boswell Dec., In lapidary inscriptions a man is not upon oath. 1817 Lamb Let. to Ayrton in Talfourd Final Mem. x. 101 Tell me candidly how you relish This, which they call The lapidary style. 1822 Byron Vis. Judgm. xii, He's buried; save the undertaker's bill, Or lapidary scrawl. 1838–9 Hallam Hist. Lit. II. viii. ii. §63. 361 They were the encouragers of a numismatic and lapidary erudition. 1873 Tristram Moab vii. 135 If the new-comers had had any reverence for the lapidary records of their predecessors. 1899 Academy 18 Feb. 210/2 A stanza [which] has a lapidary dignity, as of some thing carved in stone. |
B. n.
1. One busied about or concerned with stones. a. An artificer who cuts, polishes, or engraves gems or precious stones.
| 1382 Wyclif Ecclus. xlv. 13 With werk of the lapidarie grauun. 1500–20 Dunbar Poems lxiii. 15 Glasing wrichtis, goldsmythis, and lapidaris. 1555 Eden Decades 233 The region of Malabar where are many cunnynge Lapidaries. 1624 Fletcher Rule a Wife v. ii, An excellent lapidary set those stones sure. 1684 Winstanley in Shaks. C. Praise 401 Cornish Diamonds are not Polished by any Lapidary. 1753 Smollett Ct. Fathom (1784) 92/2 Ratchkali, who was an exquisite lapidary, had set it in such a manner, as would have imposed upon any ordinary jeweller. 1860 Tyndall Glac. i. xx. 141 Portions of the vertical walls..are polished..as if they had come from the hands of a lapidary. 1869 Boutell Arms & Arm. v. (1874) 81 The productions of the sculptor and the lapidary. |
† b. One who is skilled in the nature and kinds of gems or precious stones; a connoisseur of lapidary work. Obs.
| c 1440 Gesta Rom. xxiv. 89 (Harl. MS.) He went to a lapadary, that was expert in the vertue of stonys. 1577 Stanyhurst Descr. Irel. Ep. Ded. in Holinshed, If it shall stand with your honor his pleasure (whom I take to be an expert lapidarie). 1639 G. Daniel Ecclus. xxxii. 14 The bright Carbuncle (whose wondrous flame Pussles the skillfull Lapidare to Name). a 1658 Cleveland Gen. Poems (1677) 166 The Lapidary tells you how the Compassionate Turcoise confesseth the Sickness of his Wearer by changing colour. 1750 tr. Leonardus' Mirr. Stones 145 (225), I find twelve species of the emerald described by lapidaries. 1796 Kirwan Elem. Min. (ed. 2) I. 361 This name [Pudding stone] was invented by English Lapidaries. |
2. A treatise on (precious) stones. Obs. exc. Hist.
| c 1375 Sc. Leg. Saints, Margaret 2 Qwa wil þe vertu wyt of stanis In þe lapidar ma fynd ane is [etc.]. c 1384 Chaucer H. Fame iii. 262 The fynest stones faire That men reden in the lapidaire. c 1440 Lydg. Secrees 539, I dar seyn breffly, and nat tarye, Is noon suych stoon ffound in the lapydarye. 1652 Ashmole Theat. Chem. 221 Alle Stonys in the lapidery. 1884 Symonds Shaks. Predecessors xiii. 512 The Bestiaries and Lapidaries of the Middle Ages. |
† 3. collect. [after ns. in -ery.] Precious stones in general; jewellery. Obs.
| 1509 Barclay Shyp of Folys (1570) 43 There is no..Carbuncle, Rubie,..Nor other lapidary comparable to me. 1609 R. Armin Maids of More-Cl. F 4 A iewell..Whose liuing beauty staind all lapidary. |
4. attrib., as lapidary('s-mill, -wheel, the grinding and polishing apparatus of the lapidary.
| 1839 Ure Dict. Arts 738 The lapidary's mill, or wheel. 1875 Knight Dict. Mech., Lapidary-mill, Lapidary-wheel. 1878 Huxley Physiogr. 58 As though they [the crystals] had just been polished at the lapidary's wheel. |