| 释义 |
opal|ˈəʊpəl|
[ad. L. opal-us (Pliny); cf. Gr. ὀπάλλιος; according to Weigand II. 311, from Skr. upala ‘precious stone, gem’, the opal having been first brought from India. Cf. F. opale (16th c. opalle in Littré).]
1. a. An amorphous form of hydrous silica, somewhat resembling quartz, but in certain species exhibiting a delicate play of colour; these when cut are valuable as gems.
Many varieties have specific names: common opal, of milk-white or bluish colour, with reflexion of green, yellow, and red; black opal: see quot. 1884; fire opal or sun opal, harlequin opal, precious opal, or noble opal: see quot. 1874; semi-opal, wood-opal, opaquer varieties. See also cacholong, geyserite, girasol, hyalite, hydrophane, jasp-opal, menilite. Among the fancies formerly associated with the opal was, that when carried on the person wrapped in a bay-leaf it conferred invisibility.
[1398Trevisa Barth. De P.R. xvi. lxxii. (MS. Bodl.) lf. 179/1 Optalius hatte Opalis also and is a stone distingued with coloures of diuers precious stones..þerein is þe firei coloure of þe Carbuncle, þe schynynge purpur of Amatistus, þe briȝt grene coloure of the Smaragdus, and as coloure schyneþ þerein wiþ a manere diuersite. 1567J. Maplet Gr. Forest 16 Oppalus..is a stone in colour like to verie many, and those cleane contrarie gems.] 1598Florio, Opalo, a diuers coloured precious stone called an Opale. 1601Holland Pliny II. 614 In the Opal you shal see the burning fire of the Carbuncle or Ruby, the glorious purple of the Amethyst, the greene sea of the Emeraud, and all glittering together. 1630B. Jonson New Inn i. vi, I had No medicine, sir, to go invisible:..nor an opal Wrapped in bay-leaf, in my left fist, to charm Their eyes with. 1690Locke Hum. Und. iv. iii. (1695) 313 To this, perhaps, will be said, has not an Opall, or the infusion of Lignum Nephriticum, two Colours at the same time? 1727–46Thomson Summer 156 Thick thro' the whitening Opal play thy Beams. 1846Ruskin Mod. Paint. I. ii. ii. i. §14 Every one knows how capriciously the colours of a fine opal vary from day to day, and how rare the lights are which bring them fully out. 1865G. Meredith R. Fleming xvi, A really fine opal, coquetting with the lights of every gem..; it shot succinct red flashes, and green, and yellow..it was veined with lightning hues, and at times it slept in a milky cloud, innocent of fire, quite maidenlike. 1874H. M. Westropp Man. Prec. Stones 38 The noble or precious opal..exhibits a rich play of prismatic colours, which flash from minute fissures apparently striated with microscopic lines... This variety is called the Harlequin opal. Ibid. 39 Fire Opal is a rich hyacinth-red variety of opal, from Mexico. It is also called Girasol and Sun opal. 1884Encycl. Brit. XVII. 777/2 The so-called ‘black opals’..consist of this matrix [of dark brown ironstone] penetrated in all directions by veins and spots of opal, forming a mixture sometimes known as ‘root of opal’.
b. fig. in reference to its various and changing colours.
1591Sylvester Du Bartas i. ii. 306 When we see Aurora passing gay, With Opals paint the Cieling of Cathay. 1601Shakes. Twel. N. ii. iv. 77 The Tailor make thy doublet of changeable Taffata, for thy minde is a very Opall.
c. The colour of an opal.
1890O. Wilde Pict. Dorian Gray v, in Lippincott's Monthly Mag. July 41 The sky was pure opal now. 1897Sears, Roebuck Catal. 212/1 Dainty colorings..baby blue, rose pink, opal, [etc.]. 1901[see ash n.2 1 d]. 1914R. Brooke in E. Marsh Rupert Brooke (1918) vii. 142 Like an Italian town in silver-point..with a sea and sky of opal and pearl and faint gold around. 1966G. W. Turner Eng. Lang. Austral. & N.Z. iv. 83 The sky turned into an unlucky opal.
2. A commercial appellation of semi-translucent white glass; = opaline n. 2. Also with reference to the opalescence of the glass (rather than the colour). Also attrib.
1885List of Subscribers, Classified (United Telephone Co.) (ed. 6) 229 (Advt.), Crystal and Demi-Crystal Table Services and Ornaments..Opal, Flint, and Coloured Goods. 1889Advt., Photographic Views, Medallions, Etchings and Opals. 1891W. J. Dawson Redempt. E. Strahan iii. 49 Her work was to paint flowers and little landscapes on opal. 1949W. A. Thorpe Eng. Glass (ed. 2) ix. 226 It [sc. a ‘nine-pin’ bottle] belonged in the main to Bristol and Stourbridge manufacturers, and in..white opal it lasted well into the nineteenth century. 1970F. & L. Schuler Glassforming vi. 50 To the commercial decorators the term ‘glass color’ ..means any fusible coating for glass, including both the transparent colors and the opal colors.
3. a. attrib. passing into adj. Of or resembling the opal or that of the opal, opalescent.
a1649Drummond of Hawthornden Poems Wks. (1711) 26 Now an opal hew Bepaints heaven's crystal. Ibid. 40 Aurora..with her opal light Night's horrours checketh, putting stars to flight. 1667Milton P.L. ii. 1049 Farr off th' Empyreal Heav'n..With Opal Towrs and Battlements adorn'd Of living Saphire. 1756C. Lucas Ess. Waters III. 307 A kind of opal color is produced. 1817Campbell Reullura 187 When the opal morn first flushed the sky. c1865J. Wylde in Circ. Sc. I. 149/1 It should present an opal appearance.
b. spec. Applied to an electric light bulb made of translucent white glass.
[1901F. B. Crocker Electr. Lighting II. xvii. 423 Lamps are made in many colors, such as red, blue, green, amber, opal, frosted, etc., besides the ordinary clear glass bulbs.] 1904Electr. Rev. 19 Feb. (Suppl.) p. ix (Advt.), The ‘Ideal’ half opal lamp. 1926Gloss. Terms Electr. Engin. (B.S.I.) 148 Opal lamp, a filament lamp, the bulb of which is made of opalescent glassware so as to enlarge the source of light with a consequent reduction in surface brightness [etc.]. 1934Discovery Aug. 229/2 A hole in a screen in front of an opal lamp. 1938[see pearl n.1 16 b]. 1976Daily Tel. (Colour Suppl.) 25 June 15/2 Opal light bulbs are primarily suitable for use where the bulb is clearly visible, for their coating hides the filament.
4. Comb., as opal-buyer, opal-field, opal-seeker; opal-black, opal-coloured, opal-globed, opal-green, opal-grey, opal-hued, opal-like, opal-pale, opal-shelled, opal tinted adjs.; opal-agate (see quot.); opal blue, a carefully prepared spirit-blue; opal dirt Austral., the type of earth in which opal is found; opal glass, (a) = opaline n. 2; (b) glass iridescent like the opal; also attrib.; opal gouger Austral., one who digs for opal; cf. gouger c; opal-jasper = jasp-opal; opal plate, a plate of opal glass on which a photograph is taken; opal ware, ware made of opal glass, spec. a type of heat-resistant opalescent ware (now, with capital initial and as one word, a proprietary name in the U.K.).
1896A. H. Chester Dict. Names Min., *Opal-agate, opal, with an agate-like structure, showing bands of different colours.
a1963J. Lusby in B. James Austral. Short Stories (1963) 225 The eyes *opal-black in wrinkled slits of skin.
1880Friswell in Soc. Arts Jrnl. 445 The hydrochloride..is known as *opal blue.
1911C. E. W. Bean ‘Dreadnought’ of Darling xxv. 222 The most precious colour, the *opal-buyers told us, was ‘fire’—the rich glow as of a red-hot horseshoe, which you find in the heart of the best opal.
1598Sylvester Du Bartas ii. ii. ii. Babylon 210 Th' *Opal-colour'd Morn. 1847Emerson Poems (1857) 55 The opal-colored days.
1925Ann. Rep. Dept. Mines New South Wales 1924 85/2 The ‘*Opal Dirt’ is picking ground, being simply a layer of clay or sandy clay overlain by sandstone. 1963Opal-dirt [see bottom v. 5]. 1965Ann. Rep. Dept. Mines New South Wales 1963 51/2 Using air compressor and jack spade on the softer opal dirt.
1902Chambers's Jrnl. Aug. 496/2 There are few men on the *opal-fields who do not average five pounds per week.
1866‘J. Easel’ in Queen 11 Aug. 93/2 The *opal glass, which transmits a rich and lovely iridescent light, exactly like the precious stone from which it is named. 1885Opal-glass [see opalotype]. 1923Vogue Oct. 47/1 A pair of feathered bird pictures and French opal glass bottles. 1956L. M. Angus-Butterworth Brit. Table & Ornamental Glass iii. 10 The handle in opal glass.
1890Anthony's Photogr. Bull. III. 104 For a good negative illuminator,..a duplex or other *opal-globed lamp will not be far to seek.
1931V. Palmer Separate Lives 200 The bleary-eyed *opal-gougers, who spoke as if the hot winds had dried up the fountains of their speech. 1936A. Russell Gone Nomad vii. 57 Lured on by the uncertainty of what the next stroke of his pick will reveal, the opal-gouger never abandons hope, until, with his funds and credit exhausted, he may hope no longer.
1955S. Spender Coll. Poems 1928–53 113 The eye is carried by the choppy tide To a shore opposite of *opal-green spaces.
1867A. J. Munby Diary 7 June in D. Hudson Munby (1972) 239 All things were cool and charming, and *opal-grey, in the cool sweet morning.
1881O. Wilde Poems 126 Tremulous opal-hued anemones. 1882Ouida Maremma 110 An *opal-hued light on land, and sky and sea.
1896A. H. Chester Dict. Names Min., *Opal-jasper, common opal with the color of yellow jasper.
1598Sylvester Du Bartas ii. ii. i. Ark 495 Still (*opal-like) some changeable is seen.
1946W. de la Mare Traveller 25 *Opal-pale..A strange and deepening lustre tinged the air.
1902Chambers's Jrnl. Aug. 496/1 At that hour the *opal-seeker must cease his daily toil.
1922V. Woolf Jacob's Room i. 11 Out pushes an *opal-shelled crab.
1894Montgomery Ward Catal. 520/3 Blue *Opal Ware. A new pattern, just out, made in fancy colored glass in blue opal. Ibid. 521/1 Opal Ware. 1929Encycl. Brit. X. 412/1 In 1927 the United States had..23 manufacturers making opal ware. 1958Mixed Batch (J. A. Jobling & Co.) July 47 This new glass..was a delicate pearly white; and it was given the name Opal-ware. 1964Trade Marks Jrnl. 29 Apr. 688/2 Jobling Opalware... Tableware..made of opal glass. James A. Jobling & Company Limited,..Sunderland, manufacturers.
Senses 3, 4 in Dict. become 4, 5. Add: 3. Biol. The nonsense codon (nonsense n. 6 c) UGA; also, a mutant fragment of genetic material containing this. Freq. attrib. Cf. *amber n.1 10, *ochre n. 4.
1971Biochimie LIII. 503/1 (table) Opal. 1976Nature 26 Aug. 757/1 The three codons UAG (amber), UAA (ochre), and UGA (opal) serve as signals for polypeptide chain termination during messenger RNA translation in various prokaryotic and eukaryotic organisms. 1979[see *amber n.1 10]. 1988Proc. Nat. Acad. Sci. LXXXV. 7064 By using a sensitive opal codon reversion assay, single-base substitution errors were readily detected in the replication products. |