opalescencen.
/ˌəʊpəˈlɛsns/, U.S. /ˌoʊpəˈlɛs(ə)ns/ The quality of being opalescent; the display of various colours as in precious opal; milky iridescence. Also: an instance or appearance of this.
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the world > matter > colour > variegation > iridescence > [noun] > iridescent colour > milky iridescence or opalescent
opalescence1805
opaline1871
1805 R. Jameson Treat. External Characters Minerals 20 The opalescence..depends on a colour, but more particularly on a kind of lustre that shoots from the interior of the mineral.
1851 Debow's Rev. Apr. 392 If these mechanical impurities exist beyond a certain amount, the result is a cloudiness or opalescence.
1906 H. J. H. Fenton Notes Qualitative Anal. (new ed.) 116 With water it gives an opalescent solution which is dextrorotatory; the opalescence is removed by acetic acid.
1954 S. Wallace Coll. Poems v. 102 The wind Of green blooms turning crisped the motley hue To clearing opalescence.
2001 Guardian 15 Dec. (Saturday section) 11/2 A beguiling, nacreous opalescence that looks like one of the very hallucinations which intense absinthe intoxication is rumoured to produce.
This entry has been updated (OED Third Edition, June 2004; most recently modified version published online March 2022).
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n.1805