alabaster

See also: Alabaster

English

WOTD – 10 September 2009

A lamp whose shade has been crafted from alabaster.

Alternative forms

• alabastre (obsolete)
• alablaster (obsolete)

Etymology

From Middle English alabastre, from Old French alabastre, from Latin alabaster (“box for perfumes or unguents”), from Ancient Greek ἀλάβαστρος (alábastros), from earlier ἀλάβαστος (alábastos, “vase without handles for storing perfumes”). This may further derive from Egyptian ꜥj-r-bꜣstjt (“vessel of the Egyptian goddess Bast”). The Latin suffix -aster is unrelated, but may have influenced the spelling of the borrowing from Ancient Greek (whence a direct loan could have been rendered as *alabastrus).

Pronunciation

• (UK) IPA^(key): /ˈæl.əˌbɑːs.tə/, /ˈæl.əˌbæs.tə/
• (US) IPA^(key): /ˈæl.əˌbæs.tɚ/

• Audio (US):

  (file)

• Audio (General Australian):

  (file)

• Rhymes: -ɑːstə(ɹ), -æstə(ɹ)

Noun

alabaster (usually uncountable, plural alabasters)

1. A fine-grained white or lightly-tinted variety of gypsum, used ornamentally.
   • c. 1596–1598 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Merchant of Venice”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act I, scene i], page 163, lines 89–90:

     Why ſhould a man whoſe bloud is warme within,
     Sit like his Grandſire, cut in Alabaſter?

   • 1867, Dante Alghieri, “Paradiso”, in Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, transl., The Divine Comedy‎^[1], Canto XV, lines 22–23:

     Nor was the flame dissevered from its ribbon
     But like a radiant fillet ran along
     So that fire seemed it behind alabaster.

   • 1915 May 15, “Egyptian Antiquities for Metropolitan”, in The New York Times‎^[2] (PDF), archived from the original on 2015-09-14:

     One of the striking relics found at the tomb, was a Canopic portrait head of Queen Tii, made entirely of alabaster except the eyes and eyebrows, which were inlaid lapis lazuli and osidian.

2. (historical) A variety of calcite, translucent and sometimes banded.
3. An off-white colour, like that of alabaster.

   alabaster:  

Derived terms

• alabasterlike
• Nottingham alabaster

Translations

variety of gypsum

• Arabic: مرمر m
• Armenian: ալեբաստր (hy) (alebastr)
• Bulgarian: алабастър (alabastǎr)
• Catalan: alabastre (ca) m
• Chinese:

  Mandarin: please add this translation if you can

• Danish: alabast n or c
• Dutch: albast (nl) n
• Egyptian: (šs m)
• Esperanto: alabastro (eo)
• Finnish: alabasteri (fi)
• French: albâtre (fr) m
• Georgian: please add this translation if you can
• German: Alabaster (de) m
• Greek: αλάβαστρο (el) n (alávastro)

  Ancient: ἀλάβαστρον n (alábastron)

• Hebrew: בהט (he) m (báhat)
• Hungarian: alabástrom (hu)
• Indonesian: albas (id)
• Irish: albastar m
• Italian: alabastro (it) m
• Japanese: 雪花石膏 (ja) (せっかせっこう, sekka sekkō)
• Kalmyk: җуңшу (juñşu)
• Kazakh: алебастр (alebastr)
• Korean: 설화석고 (ko) (seolhwaseokgo)
• Latin: alabaster m
• Middle English: alabastre
• Norwegian:

  Bokmål: alabast (no) m

  Nynorsk: alabast m

• Ottoman Turkish: قایماق طاشی (kaymak taşı), صو مرمری (su mermeri)
• Persian: please add this translation if you can
• Polish: alabaster (pl) m
• Portuguese: alabastro (pt) m
• Romanian: alabastru (ro) n
• Russian: алеба́стр (ru) m (alebástr)
• Serbo-Croatian: alabaster (sh) m
• Spanish: alabastro (es) m
• Swedish: alabaster (sv) c
• Tagalog: alabastro (tl)
• Thai: please add this translation if you can
• Turkish: kaymak taşı (tr), su mermeri (tr)
• Vietnamese: please add this translation if you can
• Yoruba: alabásítà

Adjective

alabaster (not comparable)

1. Made of alabaster.

   The crown is stored in an alabaster box with an onyx handle and a gold lock.

   • 1611, The Holy Bible, […] (King James Version), London: […] Robert Barker, […], →OCLC, Mark 14:3:

     And being in Bethany, in the house of Simon the leper, as he sat at meat, there came a woman having an alabaster box of ointment of spikenard very precious; and she brake the box, and poured it on his head.

   • 1980, Colin Thubron, Seafarers: The Venetians, page 41:

     An enameled miniature of Christ is set in the center of a jeweled alabaster paten, the plate that holds the bread during Communion services.

2. Resembling alabaster: white, pale, translucent.

   An ominous alabaster fog settled in the valley.

   • 1594, William Shakespeare, Lucrece (First Quarto), London: […] Richard Field, for Iohn Harrison, […], →OCLC, lines 418-420:

     With more than admiration he admir’d
     Her azure veins, her alabaster skin,
     Her coral lips, her snow-white dimpled chin.

   • a. 1887 (date written), Emily Dickinson, “[Book IV.—Time and Eternity] Safe in Their Alabaster Chambers”, in Mabel Loomis Todd and T[homas] W[entworth] Higginson, editors, Poems, First Series, Boston, Mass.: Roberts Brothers, published 1890, →OCLC, page 113:

     Safe in their alabaster chambers
     Untouched by morning, untouched by noon
     Sleep the meek members of the resurrection,
     Rafters of satin, and roof of stone.

   • 1895, “America the Beautiful”, Katharine Lee Bates (lyrics), Samuel A. Ward (music):

     Thine alabaster cities gleam
     Undimmed by human tears!

Translations

made of alabaster

• Armenian: ալեբաստրե (hy) (alebastre)
• Catalan: alabastrí
• Dutch: albasten (nl)
• Esperanto: alabastra (eo)
• Finnish: alabasteri- (fi), alabasterinen
• German: alabastern (de)
• Greek: αλαβάστρινος (el) (alavástrinos)
• Hungarian: alabástrom (hu)
• Polish: alabastrowy (pl)
• Russian: алеба́стровый (ru) (alebástrovyj)

Further reading

• alabaster on Wikipedia.Wikipedia

Anagrams

• alabastre

Latin

Alternative forms

• alabastrum

Etymology

Borrowed from Ancient Greek ἀλάβαστρος (alábastros), from earlier ἀλάβαστος (alábastos, “vase without handles for storing perfumes”).

Pronunciation

• (Classical Latin) IPA^(key): /a.laˈbas.ter/, [äɫ̪äˈbäs̠t̪ɛr]
• (modern Italianate Ecclesiastical) IPA^(key): /a.laˈbas.ter/, [äläˈbäst̪er]

Noun

alabaster m (genitive alabastrī); second declension

1. a box, tapering to a point at the top, for perfumes or unguents

Declension

Second-declension noun (nominative singular in -er).

	singular	plural
nominative	alabaster	alabastrī
genitive	alabastrī	alabastrōrum
dative	alabastrō	alabastrīs
accusative	alabastrum	alabastrōs
ablative	alabastrō	alabastrīs
vocative	alabaster	alabastrī

Descendants

• Catalan: alabastre
• → English: alabaster
  • → Irish: albastar
• Italian: alabastro
• Old French: alabastre, aubastre
  • Middle French: albastre
    • French: albâtre
• → Old Polish: alabastyr (learned)
  • Polish: alabaster, alabastr (obsolete)
  • Silesian: alabaster
• → Portuguese: alabastro
• Romanian: alabastru
• Spanish: alabastro

References

• “alabaster”, in Charlton T. Lewis and Charles Short (1879) A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
• alabaster in Gaffiot, Félix (1934) Dictionnaire illustré latin-français, Hachette.
• “alabaster”, in The Perseus Project (1999) Perseus Encyclopedia‎^[3]

Middle English

Noun

alabaster

1. Alternative form of alabastre

Polish

Alternative forms

• alabastr (obsolete)

Etymology

Inherited from Old Polish alabastyr.

Pronunciation

 

• IPA^(key): /a.laˈbas.tɛr/

• (Middle Polish) IPA^(key): /a.laˈbas.tɛr/

• Audio:

  (file)

• Rhymes: -astɛr
• Syllabification: a‧la‧bas‧ter

Noun

alabaster m inan

1. (mineralogy) alabaster (fine-grained white or lightly-tinted variety of gypsum)

   kopalnia alabastru ― an alabaster mine

   (zrobiony, wykonany) z alabastru ― (made) of/from/out of alabaster

2. alabaster object

Declension

Declension of alabaster

	singular	plural
nominative	alabaster	alabastry
genitive	alabastru	alabastrów
dative	alabastrowi	alabastrom
accusative	alabaster	alabastry
instrumental	alabastrem	alabastrami
locative	alabastrze	alabastrach
vocative	alabastrze	alabastry

Derived terms

adjective

• alabastrowy

 

adverb

• alabastrowo

 

nouns

• alabastron
• alabastrowość

 

Related terms

noun

• alabastron

 

Further reading

• alabaster in Wielki słownik języka polskiego, Instytut Języka Polskiego PAN
• alabaster in Polish dictionaries at PWN
• Maria Renata Mayenowa, Stanisław Rospond, Witold Taszycki, Stefan Hrabec, Władysław Kuraszkiewicz (2010-2023) “alabaster”, in Słownik Polszczyzny XVI Wieku [A Dictionary of 16th Century Polish]
• Teresa Sokołowska (14.01.2022) “ALABASTR, ALABASTER, *HALABASTER”, in Elektroniczny Słownik Języka Polskiego XVII i XVIII Wieku [Electronic Dictionary of the Polish Language of the XVII and XVIII Century]
• Samuel Bogumił Linde (1807–1814) “alabaster”, in Słownik języka polskiego
• Aleksander Zdanowicz (1861) “alabaster”, in Słownik języka polskiego, Wilno 1861
• J. Karłowicz, A. Kryński, W. Niedźwiedzki, editors (1900), “alabaster”, in Słownik języka polskiego (in Polish), volume 1, Warsaw, page 21

Serbo-Croatian

Etymology

Borrowed from Latin alabaster.

Noun

alabaster m (Cyrillic spelling алабастер)

1. alabaster

   Synonyms: alabastar, ubjel

Silesian

Etymology

Inherited from Old Polish alabastyr.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /a.laˈbas.tɛr/
• Rhymes: -astɛr
• Syllabification: a‧la‧bas‧ter

Noun

alabaster m inan

1. (mineralogy) alabaster (fine-grained white or lightly-tinted variety of gypsum)
2. sawdust mixed with glue, used to seal holes in wood

Further reading

• Aleksandra Wencel (2023) “alabaster”, in Dykcjůnôrz ślų̊sko-polski, page 16

Swedish

Noun

alabaster c

1. alabaster

Declension

Declension of alabaster

		nominative	genitive
singular	indefinite	alabaster	alabasters
	definite	alabastern	alabasterns
plural	indefinite	—	—
	definite	—	—

References

• alabaster in Svensk ordbok (SO)
• alabaster in Svenska Akademiens ordlista (SAOL)
• alabaster in Svenska Akademiens ordbok (SAOB)