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Originally Posted By: BranSheaOne step from lapidary father to mother-of-pearl and the word is a little bit odd. I looked at the online etymology:
mother of pearl
1510, translating M.L. mater perlarum, with the first element perhaps connected in popular imagination with obsolete mother
a thick substance concreting in liquors; the lees or scum concreted" [Johnson], which is from the root of mud.
I really don't know how to read this line.
(it ís the shiny surface of the inside of oysters and shells, isn't it?)
One possibility is that the Middle Latin mater in the mater perlarum is a corruption of Latin materia and it got folk-etymlogized to meaning mother. The nacre was assumed, just by its appearance, to be related to pearls, hence 'material of pearls'.
Entire Thread Subject Posted By Posted lapidary Bill Palmer 03/24/11 03:27 PM Re: lapidary Zed 03/26/11 07:15 AM Re: lapidary BranShea 03/26/11 01:51 PM Re: lapidary LukeJavan8 03/26/11 03:04 PM Re: lapidary LukeJavan8 03/27/11 01:47 AM Re: lapidary tsuwm 03/26/11 03:30 PM Re: lapidary BranShea 03/26/11 07:25 PM Re: lapidary olly 03/28/11 12:19 AM Re: lapidary BranShea 03/28/11 01:15 PM Re: lapidary Candy 03/29/11 10:11 AM Re: lapidary Faldage 03/29/11 11:23 AM Re: lapidary Jackie 03/30/11 02:36 AM Re: lapidary Faldage 03/30/11 10:56 AM Re: lapidary Avy 03/31/11 01:09 AM Re: lapidary Faldage 03/26/11 11:29 PM Re: lapidary Candy 03/27/11 01:04 AM Re: lapidary Jackie 03/27/11 02:50 AM Re: lapidary Buffalo Shrdlu 03/31/11 12:35 PM
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