adamantn.adj.

Etymology: In Old English < classical Latin adamant-, adamās (also adamāns) (see below); subsequently reborrowed < (i) Anglo-Norman adamante, adamaunt, Anglo-Norman and Old French, Middle French adamant diamond, lodestone, the stone identified as ‘adamant’ (see discussion at sense A. 1a) (12th cent.), and its etymon (ii) classical Latin adamant-, adamās (also adamāns ) very hard substance (perhaps hard steel; frequently typifying hardness or inexorability), diamond, in post-classical Latin also lodestone, magnet, the stone identified as ‘adamant’ (see discussion at sense A. 1a) (from 11th cent. in British sources), object or substance that overrides or negates the action of a lodestone (from 13th cent. in British sources, following Pliny's description of the properties of ‘adamant’) < ancient Greek ἀδάμαντ- , ἀδάμας , a name of the hardest metal, probably steel, in Hellenistic Greek also diamond, either < ancient Greek ἀ- a- prefix⁶ + δάμνασθαι to tame ( < the same Indo-European base as tame adj.; compare Hellenistic Greek ἀδάμας (adjective) unbreakable; already in ancient Greek (Homer) as a personal name, apparently in sense ‘unconquerable’), or a loanword, perhaps from a Semitic language, reinterpreted by folk etymology. Compare adamas n., aymont n., diamond n.The application of the word to lodestone probably arose primarily in the context of medieval lapidaries, in which diamond and lodestone were both noted for their hardness; in classical Latin, Pliny noted that adamās had the property of neutralizing the magnetic power of lodestone, which may perhaps have prompted confusion between the two substances; for many medieval writers, the word apparently denoted a substance in which the properties of diamond and of lodestone were confused. It is perhaps possible that ancient uses denoting a metal may also have contributed to this sense development (since lodestone or magnetite is an ore of iron), as may folk-etymological association with classical Latin adamāre to love or admire greatly (see adamate v.). The French forms show a learned borrowing of the Latin word, the regularly developed form being (probably via a dissimilated Latin variant *adimas ) Old French, Middle French, French aimant (see aymont n.; this is the usual word in modern French for a magnet). See adamas n. for learned borrowing of the Latin nominative form adamās ; the forms aðamans , adamans reflect the altered Latin nominative form adamāns . The various spellings for the first consonant of the word shown by the α. forms are difficult to interpret; compare A. Campbell Old Eng. Gram. (1959) §530 note 3.