adamant, n. and a.
(ˈædəmənt)
Also 4–5 adamaunt, -aund, ademaunt, -and; atha-, attha-, atthe-, attemant, -maunt, 5 admont, 6 adamounde.
[a. literary OFr. adamaunt, ademaunt, ad. L. adamant-em (nom. adamas), a. Gr. ἀδάµας, ἀδάµαντ-α, orig. adj. = invincible (f. ἀ not + δαµά-ω I tame), afterwards a name of the hardest metal, prob. steel; also applied by Theophrastus to the hardest crystalline gem then known, the emery-stone of Naxos, ‘an amorphous form of corundum.’ In L. poetically for the hardest iron or steel, or anything very hard and indestructible; also, with Pliny, the name of a transparent crystalline gem of the hexahedral system, apparently corundum or white sapphire, but extended and at length transferred to the still harder diamond (q.v.) after this became known in the West. The early med.L. writers apparently explaining the word from adamā-re ‘to take a liking to, have an attraction for,’ took the lapidem adamantem for the loadstone or magnet (an ore of iron, and thus also associated with the ancient metallic sense); and with this confusion the word passed into the modern languages. In OE. it occurs as aðamans, from med.L.; and in 13th c. as adamantines stan, a transl. of lapis adamantinus, with the adj. mistaken for a n. in apposition to lapis, and so englished as stone of adamantin. In the current form it is a 14th c. adoption of the literary Fr. adamaunt, ademaunt, adapted from the L. in place of the popular form aïmant (:—late L. *adimantem, cf. Pr. adiman, aziman, ayman, Sp. iman) loadstone, also found in Eng.; see aymont. Diamant arose as a variant of adamant or adimant; see diamond.]
Name of an alleged rock or mineral, as to which vague, contradictory, and fabulous notions long prevailed. The properties ascribed to it show a confusion of ideas between the diamond (or other hard gems) and the loadstone or magnet, though by writers affecting better information, it was distinguished from one or other, or from both. The confusion with the loadstone ceased with the 17th c., and the word was then often used by scientific writers as a synonym of diamond. In modern use it is only a poetical or rhetorical name for the embodiment of surpassing hardness; that which is impregnable to any application of force.
A. n.
1. a. Without identification with any other substance.
| c 885 K. ælfred Greg. Past. (1871) 270 Se hearda stan, se þe aðamans hatte, ðone mon mid nane isene ceorfan ne mæᵹ. c 1225 Hali Meidenhad 37 Ha is hardre iheorted þen adamantines stan. 1382 Wyclif Ezek. iii. 9 And Y ȝaue thi face as an adamaunt, and as a flynt. c 1386 Chaucer Knt.'s T. (Ellesm.) 1132 The dore was al of Adamant eterne [v.r. ademauntz, athamant, atthemant, athamauntz, attemant]. Ibid. 447 Writen in the table of atthamaunt [v.r. athamaunte, athamaunt]. c 1400 Rom. Rose 4181 The stoon was hard of ademaunt. 1535 Coverdale Zach. vii. 12 They made their hertes as an Adamant stone. 1579 Lyly Euphues (1636) I. 8 The Adamant though it be so hard that nothing can bruise it, yet if the warme blood of a Goat be powred vpon it, it bursteth. 1667 Milton P.L. ii. 436 Gates of burning adamant Barred over us prohibit all egress. 1735 Somerville The Chase iii. 605 On Rocks of Adamant it stands secure. 1783 Cowper Lett. 24 Feb. Wks. 1876, 128, I am well in body but with a mind that would wear out a frame of adamant. 1852 Gladstone Gleanings IV. xxiii. 158 Here we impinge upon a dilemma hard as adamant. 1875 Farrar Silence & Voices Ser. i. 14 Around every step of our career on earth the mystery of the Infinite rises like a wall of adamant. |
b. fig.
| 1642 R. Carpenter Exper. ii. vii. 178 For the bloud of Christ will breake the Adamant of his heart. 1828 Carlyle Misc. (1857) I. 223 In collision with the sharp adamant of Fate. 1860 Motley Netherl. I. ii. (1868) 47 The young King..was not adamant to the temptations spread for him. |
† 2. a. Identified with the diamond. Obs.
| 1393 Gower Conf. III. 112 The seconde [stone in the crown] is an adamant. c 1440 Prom. Parv., Adamant, precyowse stone, Adamas. 1598 Greene James IV (1861) 201 The adamant, O king, will not be fil'd But by itself. 1617 Fynes Moryson i. iii. i. 213 They say that Adamants are found here, which skilfull jewellers repute almost as precious as the Orientall. 1794 Sullivan View of Nat. I. xxix. 438 The garnet, and diamond, or adamant. |
† b. as the natural opposite of the loadstone. Obs.
| 1398 Trevisa Barth. De P.R. xvi. viii. (1495) 557 This stone Adamas is dyuers and other than an Magnas, for yf an adamas be sette by yren it suffryth not the yren come to the magnas, but drawyth it by a manere of vyolence fro the magnas. 1567 J. Maplet Greene Forest 1 The Adamant placed neare any yron, will not suffer it to be drawen away of the Lode Stone. 1750 Leonardus's Mirr. Stones 63 The Adamant..is such an enemy to the magnet, that if it be bound to it, it will not attract iron. |
† 3. a. Identified with the loadstone or magnet. Obs.
| 1366 [under 3 b]. c 1400 Rom. Rose 1182 Right as an adamaund, iwys, Can drawen to hym sotylly The yren. 1481 Caxton Myrrour ii. vii. 79 In ynde groweth the Admont stone..she by her nature draweth to her yron. 1527 Whittinton Gramm., Lapis ferrum attrahens, an adamounde stone, magnes. 1614 J. Cooke City Gallant in Hazlitt Dodsley II. 277 As true to thee as steel to adamant. 1656 Bp. Hall Occas. Medit. (1851) 52 The grace of God's Spirit, like the true loadstone or adamant, draws up the iron heart of man to it. |
† b. as the natural opposite of the diamond. Obs.
| 1366 Mandeville xiv. 161 Aftre that, men taken the Ademand, that is the Schipmannes Ston, that drawethe the Nedle to him, and men leyn the Dyamand upon the Ademand, and leyn the Nedle before the Ademand; and ȝif the Dyamand be gode and vertuous, the Ademand drawethe not the Nedle to him, whils the Dyamand is there present. 1579 Lyly Euphues K 10 The Adamant cannot draw yron, if the Diamond lye by it. |
† c. fig. A magnet, centre of attraction. Obs.
| 1596 Drayton Leg. iii. 67 My Lookes so powerfull Adamants to Love. 1610 Histrio-mastix ii. 47 Your bookes are Adamants, and you the Iron That cleaves to them. 1622 Heylin Cosmogr. Introd. 4/2 (1674) The seat of Religion is not the least Adamant which draws people to it. 1625 Bacon Ess. xviii. 523 A great Adamant of Acquaintance. |
† 4. Confusing 3 with 1 or 2. Obs.
| 1590 Shakes. Mids. N. ii. i. 195 You draw me, you hard⁓hearted Adamant, But yet you draw not Iron, for my heart Is true as steele. |
5. attrib.
| 1387 Trevisa Higden Rolls Ser. I. 221 Adamant stones [L. lapides magnetes]. 1535 Coverdale Jer. xvii. 1 With a penne of yron & with an Adamant clawe. 1677 R. Gilpin Dæmonol. Sacra (1867) 38 Which might make impressions upon an iron breast or an adamant heart. 1878 B. Taylor Pr. Deukalion i. vi. 50 Solid adamant walls Seem built against the Future that should be. |
B. adj. Unshakeable, inflexible, esp. to be adamant, stubbornly to refuse compliance with requests. (The point at which the n. use passed into adj. is not determinable.)
| 1936 in Webster Collegiate Dict. 1943 A. Christie Moving Finger vii. §1. 77 Both Joanna and I tried to make her change her mind, but she was quite adamant. 1948 ‘N. Shute’ No Highway v. 135 C.A.T.O. were adamant that they would not carry Mr. Honey back across the Atlantic in one of their aircraft. 1960 H. E. Bates Aspidistra in Babylon 157 In her adamant, challenging, desperate fashion she seized my arm. |
Hence ˈadamantly adv.
| 1961 Sunday Times 2 July 32/1 ‘When it's a girl her mother should be the one interviewed,’ he stated adamantly. |