Name:
The name “topaz” is derived from the Greek Τοπάζιος (Τοpaziοs), which was the ancient name of St. John’s Island in the Red Sea from which a yellow stone (believed to be chrysolite: yellowish olivine) was mined in ancient times; topaz itself (rather than topazios) wasn’t known about before the classical era. In the Middle Ages the name topaz was used to refer to any yellow gemstone, but now the name is only properly applied to the silicate.
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Name:
The name of the gemstone is believed to come from either the Arabic word faridat meaning “gem” or the French word peritot meaning “unclear.”
Description:
Peridot is one of the few gemstones that comes in only one color. The depth of green depends on how much iron is contained in the crystal structure, and varies from yellow-green to olive to brownish green. Peridot is also often referred to as “poor man’s emerald”. Olivine is a very abundant mineral, but gem-quality peridot is rather rare. Peridot crystals have been collected from iron-nickel meteorites.
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Description:
Moonstones come in a variety of colours. The body colour can range from colourless to grey, brown, yellow, green, or pink. The clarity ranges from transparent to translucent. The best moonstone has a blue sheen, perfect clarity, and a colourless body colour.
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Name:
The stone’s name derives (via Latin and French) from Greek molochitis, “mallow-green stone”, from molochē, variant of malachē, “mallow”.
Description:
Malachite is a light green to dark emerald green coloured stone, it is usually streaked with light green.
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Name:
Lapis is the Latin for ’stone’ and lazuli the genitive form of the Medieval Latin lazulum, which is from the Arabic lazaward, which is ultimately from the Persian لاژورد lajward, the name of a place where lapis lazuli was mined. The name of the place came to be associated with the stone mined there and eventually, with its colour. The English word azure, the Spanish and Portuguese azul, and the Italian azzurro are cognates. Taken as a whole, lapis lazuli means “stone of azure”.
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