▪ I. margarite1 Obs. exc. arch.
(ˈmɑːgəraɪt)
Also 4–6 margaret, -it, -yte, 5 margrite, marguarite, -garette, 6 margareit, -garete, -grete, mergreit.
[a. OF. margarite (mod.F. marguerite), ad. L. margarīta (whence OF. margerie margery, Sp. margarita, It. margarita, margherita), ad. Gr. µαργαρῑ́της (also µαργαρῖτις or µαργαρὶς λίθος, and simply µαργαρίς), f. µάργαρ-ον pearl, µάργαρ-ος pearl-oyster + -ίτης: see -ite. In the early Teut. langs. the word was adopted with etymologizing perversion: the Goth. marikreitus (from the Greek), is influenced by mari-, marei sea, while the WGer. forms, OE. męregrot, -grota, OS. merigri(o)ta, OHG. merigreoȥ, marigreoȥ, MHG. mergrieȥ(e, are altered so as to express the sense ‘sea-pebble’.
The word is prob. adopted from some oriental lang. (Pliny refers to it as ‘barbarous’): cf. Skr. manjarī cluster of flowers, also (according to the Indian lexicographers) pearl, cogn. w. manju beautiful. The Pahlavī marvārīt (:—*marγ-), Pers. mervārīd, Syriac marganīthå (whence Arab. marjān) are prob. from Greek.]
1. A pearl. Now only arch.
| [c 1000 Ags. Gosp. Matt. xiii. 46 Þa he funde þæt an deorwyrðe meregrot.] 1310 in Wright Lyric P. v. 26 The myht of the margarite haveth this may mere. 1382 Wyclif Matt. vii. 6 Nether sende ȝe ȝour margaritis [gloss or preciouse stoonys] before swyne. a 1450 Knt. de la Tour (1868) 163 A precious margarite, the whiche is a bright thinge, rounde, white, and clene. 1535 Stewart Cron. Scot. II. 367 The relict of Sanct Andro..Adornit wes..With diamontis ding, and margretis mony one. 1567 J. Maplet Gr. Forest 14 The Margaret of all Gemmes, those which be in their kindes white, is esteemed the chiefest. 1698 Fryer Acc. E. India & P. 321, I have taken out of these Shell-fish many Margarites. 1772 Nugent tr. Hist. Friar Gerund I. 207 That margarite or pearl..in a dissolution of which..Cleopatra drank Anthony's health. 1885 R. F. Burton Arab. Nts. (1887) III. 327 A collar set with margarites and rubies. |
| attrib. 1387–8 T. Usk Test. Love iii. i. (Skeat) l. 35 A Margarit perle, that is so precious a geme with clere and litell. 1598 Tofte Alba (1880) 20 Rich Margarite Pearle. |
¶ b. Taken to mean ‘precious stone’.
| c 1430 Lydg. Min. Poems (Percy Soc.) 188 Men shuld not put a precious margarite, As rubies, saphires,..Emeraudes ner rounde perles whight, To-fore rude swyne. |
c. As the type of something precious: cf. pearl.
| a 1450 Knt. de la Tour (1868) 157 The sowle is the precious marguarite vnto God. 1549 Compl. Scot. 1 Marie queen of Scotlande, the margareit and perle of princessis. 1635 R. Brathwait Five Senses, etc. in Archaica (1815) II. 37 Meantime, that precious margarite, incased in this art-affected cabinet, may lose her lustre. |
† 2. (See Margaret 2.) Obs.
Hence † margaˈrital a., pearl-like.
| a 1618 Sylvester Sonn. xii. Wks. (Grosart) II. 323/2 The margaritall-gem For praise deserves thy name. |
▪ II. margarite2 Min.
(ˈmɑːgəraɪt)
[f. Gr. µάργαρον pearl + -ite.]
‘Pearl mica’, a hydrous silicate found in scales having a pearly lustre.
| 1823 W. Phillips Introd. Min. (ed. 3) 208 Margarite. This mineral is in the mass of a greyish white colour... It has lately been brought into this country from the Tyrol. |
Add: 2. Petrogr. [a. F. margarite (adopted in this sense by H. Vogelsang 1870, in Arch. Néerl. des Sciences V. 173).] A line of globulites resembling a string of pearls, commonly occurring in glassy igneous rocks.
| 1890 in Cent. Dict. 1895 A. Harker Petrol. xi. 133 From the partial coalescence of a series of globulites arranged in a line result margarites, resembling a string of pearls. 1910 Encycl. Brit. VII. 568/2 They [sc. globulites] may..arrange themselves into rows like strings of beads—margarites. 1930 A. Holmes Petrogr. Methods (rev. ed.) ix. 336 When globulites are aligned and in contact, like a string of beads, the aggregates are called margarites. By the complete coalescence of the globulite beads, longulites, or cylindrical rods with rounded ends, are formed. 1972 Whitten & Brooks Penguin Dict. Geol. 122 Devitrification, the development of crystals, initially on a very small scale, in a glassy igneous rock... Many of the initial crystal growths have special names, such as globularites, margarites, belonites, etc. |