English

Noun

onyx ‎(countable and uncountable, plural onyxes)

1. (mineralogy) A banded variety of chalcedony, a cryptocrystalline form of quartz.
2. A jet-black color, named after the gemstone.

   onyx colour:

Translations

Adjective

onyx ‎(not comparable)

1. jet-black
   • 1611, Bible (KJV):, Genesis, 2:12

     And the gold of that land is good: there is bdellium and the onyx stone.

   • 1922, Michael Arlen, chapter 3/7/2, in “Piracy”: A Romantic Chronicle of These Days:

     There was no moon, only stars set brilliantly in the soft black onyx of the sky : a black night and very silent on Cimiez ; and a black and silent prospect from the verandah […]

See also

• sardonyx

References

1. ↑ Chambers Dictionary of Etymology, Robert K. Barnhart (ed.), Chambers, 1988

Latin

Etymology

From Ancient Greek ὄνυξ ‎(ónux, “nail”).

Pronunciation

• (Classical) IPA^(key): /ˈo.ny.yks/, [ˈɔ.nʏ.ʏks]

Noun

onyx m ‎(genitive onychis); third declension

1. onyx, yellow marble
2. A yellowish precious stone
3. The female of a mussel of the scallop species

Inflection

Third declension.

References

• onyx in Charlton T. Lewis and Charles Short (1879) A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
• onyx in Charlton T. Lewis (1891) An Elementary Latin Dictionary, New York: Harper & Brothers
• onyx in Harry Thurston Peck, editor (1898) Harper's Dictionary of Classical Antiquities, New York: Harper & Brothers
• onyx in William Smith et al., editor (1890) A Dictionary of Greek and Roman Antiquities, London: William Wayte. G. E. Marindin

Portuguese

Noun

onyx m (plural onyx)

1. Obsolete spelling of ónix (used in Portugal until September 1911 and died out in Brazil during the 1920s).