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▪ I. agate, n.|ˈægət|
Forms: 6–7 agath, agget, agot, 6–8 agat, 7 agett, aggott, (nagget), 8 aggat, aggot, 7– agate.
[a. 16th c. Fr. agathe, ad. It. ágatha, ágata, f. L. achātes (a. Gr. ἀχάτης), whence earlier Fr. acate, acathe, and Eng. achate, also in use.]
1. a. A precious stone; a name applied to the semi-pellucid variegated chalcedonies, with the colours disposed in parallel stripes or bands, or blended in clouds, and often with curious markings due to the infiltration of other minerals; from these variations in appearance, lapidaries distinguish many varieties, as moss agate, ribbon agate, eye agate, fortification agate, zoned or banded agate, variegated agate, brecciated agate, etc.
1570B. Googe Pop. Kingd. iv. (1880) 39 b, Jaspers, Chrysolytes and Agats doe appere. 1621Lady A. Drury in Bury Wills (1850) 166 To my sister Gawdie, my agett and pearle chaine. 1646Sir T. Browne Pseud. Ep. 381 Many fair rooms paved with Agath. 1716–8Lady M. W. Montague Lett. I. xiv. 49 A large collection of agates..of an uncommon size. 1789Burney Hist. Music (ed. 2) IV. v. 181 Tile them with gold and pave them with aggots. 1865Livingstone Zambesi xii. 261 The ground is strewn with agates for a number of miles above the falls.
b. A marble made of glass, etc., resembling agate. Also attrib.
1843[see taw n.2]. 1921Glasgow Herald 26 Nov. 6 The marbles we played with..were called ‘nicks’,..‘agates’ (black, blood and milk). 1934Amer. Speech IX. 75/1 Agates or Aggies, marbles made of agate and usually used as shooters. 1952J. Steinbeck East of Eden xxxvi. 365 Cal was able to develop his marble game and set about gathering in all the chalkies and immies, glassies and agates.
†2. fig. A very diminutive person, in allusion to small figures cut in agates for seals. Obs.
1597Shakes. 2 Hen. IV, i. ii. 19, I was neuer mann'd with an Agot till now. 1599― Much Ado iii. i. 65 If tall, a launce ill-headed: If low, an agot very vildlie cut.
3. An instrument used by gold-wire-drawers, having an agate fixed in it for burnishing. Cf. A glazier's diamond.
1751Chambers Cycl. s.v., The gold wire drawers burnish their gold with an Agat; whence the instrument, made use of on that occasion, is also called an Agat.
4. Typog. The American name of the type called in England ruby. Also attrib. (see quots.).
1838U.S. Mag. & Democratic Rev. I. 61 Light faced Book and Job Printing Types..Diamond, Pearl..Agate. 1871Ringwalt Encycl. Print. 24 Agate, the American name for a size of type between Nonpareil and Pearl, and of which there are about fourteen lines to an inch. 1884Chicago News Let. 5 Apr., Commercial advertising 20 cents per line Agate measure. 1956F. H. Collins Authors' & Printers' Dict. (ed. 10) 8/2 Agate line (U.S.), measure advertising space, 1/14 in. deep and one column wide.
5. Sometimes erroneously confused with gagates, jet.
1661Lovell Hist. Min. 53 Of Sulphurs, Agath, Gagates. It's..of a black, stony earth, full of bitumen.
6. Comb. and attrib. agate-jasper, a jasper veined or clouded with agate or chalcedony; agate-onyx (see quot.); agate-ring, one made of, or set with, an agate; agate-shell, a collector's name for the tropical genus of land-shells, Achatina; also called agate-snail; agate-ware, a kind of pottery coloured to resemble agate; also, enamelled iron or steel ware for household utensils; also attrib. Also agate cup, agate hole, agate mill, agate stone, agate trade, agate work, etc.; agate eyes; agate-bearing, agate-eyed, agate-forming, agate-handle(d), etc.
1875Ure Dict. Arts I. 32 The igneous origin of the *agate-bearing melaphyres.
1634Unton Inventories 32, I give and bequeath..my *nagget cup.
1925C. Day Lewis Beechen Vigil 30 Panic thereafter Came *agate-eyed, gibbering, past the gate.
1876Geo. Eliot Dan. Der. IV. li. 16 Deepest *agate eyes.
1710Steele Tatler No. 245 ⁋2 An *Aggat-Handle Knife.
1863Tyndall Heat i. 30 The wires should be drawn through *agate holes.
1875Ure Dict. Arts I. 35 It is in the Idar valley, that most of the *agate-mills are situated.
1747Dingley Gems in Phil. Trans. XLIV. 505 The *Agat-Onyx, of two or more Strata of white, either opaque or transparent. 1874Westropp Prec. Stones 46 Agate-onyx, a variety of onyx in which the upper layer is opaque and white, the lower transparent, and either colourless or a pale yellow. This is the material most frequently employed for modern carving, and is often termed the German onyx.
1596Shakes. 1 Hen. IV, ii. iv. 78 This..Not-pated, *Agat ring, Puke stocking, Caddice garter, Smooth tongue, Spanish pouch. 1884G. W. Tryon Struct. Conch. III. 59 Achatina, Etym. *Agate-shell..Mostly African.
1889Cent. Dict., Agate-snail. 1901E. Step Shell Life xix. 379 The *Agate Snail (Cæcilianella acicula), though only about one-fifth of an inch in length, is interesting on several grounds.
1592Shakes. Rom. & Jul. i. iv. 55 In shape no bigger then *Agat-stone, on the fore-finger of an Alderman.
1857J. Marryat Pottery & Porcelain (ed. 2) viii. 154 *Agate and jasper ware. 1865Jewitt Wedgwoods Index, Agate-ware vases. 1879Cassell's Techn. Educ. I. 367 During the reigns of Anne and George I, an improved ware was made of sand and pipe⁓clay, coloured with oxide of copper and manganese, forming the well-known ‘agate-ware’ and ‘tortoiseshell-ware’.
▪ II. agate, adv., orig. phr.|əˈgeɪt|
on gate, a gate.
[a prep.1 of state + gate n.2 way, path.]
On the way, on the road; hence, a-going, in motion. (Properly a northern word.)
1554Interl. Youth in Hazl. Dodsley II. 25 Go to it then hardily, and let us be agate. 1587Holinshed Scott. Chron. (1806) I. 418 Some of the mills yet were now at low water set on gate, by reason the streams were so hugelie augmented. 1674Ray N. Countrey Wds. s.v., Agate, just going, as I am agate. 1848C. Brontë J. Eyre (1857) 344 I'm fear'd you have some ill plans agate. 1863Mrs. Gaskell Sylvia's L. I. 63 And t' cursed old pressgang's agate again. |