The Word of the Day comes from "Wolfe Island" by Lucy Treloar. It is shortlisted for the 2020 ABIA Literary Prize.
CHRYSOPRASE
NOUN
an apple-green gemstone consisting of a variety of chalcedony that contains nickel.
(in the New Testament) a golden-green precious stone, perhaps a variety of beryl.
ORIGIN Middle English (denoting a precious stone in the New Testament): from Old Frenchcrisopace, via Latin from Greekkhrusoprasos, from khrusos‘gold’ + prason‘leek’.
Chrysoprase is a form of silica, much like sand or quartz, but it is made distinctive by the deposits of nickel in the stone that give it a distinctive green colour. This is different from emerald, the other most famous green stone, which gets its colour from chromium deposits.
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