cairngorm

[ kairn-gawrm ]

Origin of cairngorm

1
1785–95; short for Cairngorm stone, i.e., stone from Cairngorm Mountains
  • Also called Cairngorm stone .

Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2024

How to use cairngorm in a sentence

  • They ascended the hills on the Cairngorms to 1400 or 1500 feet, and in Yorkshire to 2400 feet.

    The Romance of Plant Life | G. F. Scott Elliot
  • Ben Nevis and the Cairngorms are partly composed of granite.

    The Story of the Hills | H. N. Hutchinson
  • It came this morning with the box smashed, the bracelet bent, and one of the cairngorms forced out.

    The Royal Mail | James Wilson Hyde
  • Ornaments were worn wherever there was a place for them, but the only jewels were cairngorms, and they were always set in silver.

  • The larger ones—and some were very large—were as a rule discoloured, looking more like big cairngorms.

    Prester John | John Buchan

British Dictionary definitions for cairngorm

cairngorm

/ (ˈkɛənˌɡɔːm, ˌkernˈɡɒrm) /


noun
  1. a smoky yellow, grey, or brown variety of quartz, used as a gemstone: Also called: smoky quartz

Origin of cairngorm

1
C18: from Cairn Gorm (literally: blue cairn), mountain in Scotland where it is found

Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012