Jews' stone, Jewstone
[In senses 1, 2, rendering med.L. lapis Judaicus (Lanfranc's Cirurgie 278, and Minsheu Ductor).]
1. The fossil spine of a large sea-urchin, found in Syria, formerly used in medicine. ? Obs.
| 1633 Hart Diet of Diseased iii. xx. 312 Some medicines..are esteemed good against the stone..of this kind is the Iewes stone, goats blood [etc.]. 1751 Sir J. Hill Mat. Med. 302 Lapis Judaicus, The Jews Stone,..is no other than the Spine of a large Echinus Marinus of a peculiar Species. 1888 Syd. Soc. Lex., Jew's stone, see Lapis judaicus [a stone found in Palestine, and formerly used as a diuretic and lithontriptic, as well as in fluxes]. |
2. A crystallized form of iron pyrites (also called marcasite), formerly used as a gem. ? Obs.
| 1617 Minsheu Ductor, Marchesite..etiam Iewes stone. 1658 Phillips, Jewstone, a kind of stone called also a Marchesite. 1863 Geo. Eliot Romola I. vii, The ‘Jew's stone’, with the lion-headed serpent enchased in it. |
3. Applied locally to various hard rocks.
| 1839 Murchison Silur. Syst. i. xxv. 313 Jew stone..This quarriers' term is evidently used to designate all hard unmanageable rocks of uneven and splintery fracture. 1885 Cassell's Encycl. Dict., Jew-stone. 1. Geol. A local name for a black basalt found on the Clee Hills. 1890 Cent. Dict., Jews'-stone..local name of a limestone-bed belonging to the White Lias (Rhætic) in Somersetshire. |