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Posted By: Wordwind Offshoot of Quarries - 02/20/05 01:02 PM
I didn't want to get Mav's thread too far off-topic, so will open this one up.

He included a definition for 'quarry' as being diamond-shaped glass panes.

I searched and found some interesting info:

hyaline (last syllable having a soft 'i' sounding like the 'i' in 'pin') = glasslike or transparent

clathrate = "having a latticelike structure pierced with holes or windows" (onelook.com)

And our old friend 'triboluminescence' popped up again with information that diamonds could be caused to glow by rubbing them long enough! Hadn't heard that before. Biting down on wintergreen candy is one thing, but rubbing diamonds for glow effect? Cool!

Posted By: of troy rhombus or lozenge. - 02/20/05 02:58 PM
diamond shapes can also (apparently, but never by me!) be called lozenge shaped.

a quick check in OneLook, reveled diamond shaped alternated between first and second meaning (with a medical 'tablet' of the same shape, sometimes being the alternate first meaning )

i had always thought of lozenge as a sucking type candy to sooth a sore throat, or to ease coughing. (and hadn't thought about the shape, or that the shape was a key factor between a cough lozenge (brand X) and cough drop, (brand Y)

one dictionary suggest the word lozenge is actual related to the word rhombus!
(a diamond shape could be defined as a rhombus with equal sides, and paired angles, (opposite angles at 60° (apx) or 120° (apx).)

i stumbled across this use of the word lozenge when looking for information about striped patterns and/or harliquin patterns. (at one point, i described the diamond shaped element of my stained glass as having a harliquine type design, and the person i was speaking to, didn't understand what i meant by a harliquine type pattern!--i think they would be less likely to understand a lozenge type pattern!--or is that just me, (ie, a personal knowledge gap?)

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