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agate

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ag⋅ate

  [ag-it]
Use agate in a Sentence
–noun
1. a variegated chalcedony showing curved, colored bands or other markings.
2. a playing marble made of this substance, or of glass in imitation of it.
3. Printing. a 5 1/2 -point type of a size between pearl and nonpareil. Compare ruby (def. 5).
Origin:
1150–1200; ME ac(c)ate, achate, agaten (cf. D agaat, OS agāt, OHG agat), appar. < OF agathe or It agata (initial stress) ≪ ML achātēs < Gk achtēs

Related forms:
ag⋅ate⋅like, ag⋅a⋅toid, adjective
Dictionary.com Unabridged
Based on the Random House Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2009.
Cite This Source Link To agate
Agathe
Agathe Online. Shop Target.com.
www.Target.com
Agate Gemstone Beads
Shop our selection of unique jems. Hurry - Spend $30 & Get $10 Off!
www.OrientalTrading.com
ag·ate   (āg'ĭt)   
n.  

  1. A fine-grained, fibrous variety of chalcedony with colored bands or irregular clouding.

  2. Games A playing marble made of agate or a glass imitation of it; an aggie.

  3. A tool with agate parts, such as a burnisher tipped with agate.

  4. Printing A type size, approximately 5 1/2 points.


[Middle English achate, agaten, from Old French acate, agate, alteration (influenced by Greek agathē, good) of Latin achātēs, from Greek akhātēs.]
The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
Copyright © 2009 by Houghton Mifflin Company.
Published by Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.
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Word Origin & History

agate 
1570, from M.Fr. agathe, from O.Fr. acate, from L. achates, from Gk. achates, the name of a river in Sicily where the stones were found. But the river could as easily be named for the stone. The earlier Eng. form of the word, achate (1230), was directly from Latin. Figurative sense of "a diminutive person" (1597) is from the now-obsolete meaning "small figures cut in agates for seals," preserved in typographer's agate (1838), the U.S. name of the 5.5-point font called in Great Britain ruby. Meaning "toy marble made of glass resembling agate" is from 1843 (colloquially called an aggie).
Online Etymology Dictionary, © 2001 Douglas Harper
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Bible Dictionary

Agate

(Heb. shebo), a precious stone in the breast-plate of the high priest (Ex. 28:19; 39:12), the second in the third row. This may be the agate properly so called, a semi-transparent crystallized quartz, probably brought from Sheba, whence its name. In Isa. 54:12 and Ezek. 27:16, this word is the rendering of the Hebrew cadcod, which means "ruddy," and denotes a variety of minutely crystalline silica more or less in bands of different tints. This word is from the Greek name of a stone found in the river Achates in Sicily.

Easton's 1897 Bible Dictionary
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