sapphirine

American  

[saf-er-in, -uh-reen, -uh-rahyn] / ˈsæf ər ɪn, -əˌrin, -əˌraɪn /

adjective

1. consisting of sapphire; like sapphire, especially in color.

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noun

1. a pale-blue or greenish, usually granular mineral, a silicate of magnesium and aluminum.

2. a blue variety of spinel.

sapphirine British  

/ ˈsæfəˌriːn, -rɪn /

noun

1. a rare blue or bluish-green mineral that consists of magnesium aluminium silicate in monoclinic crystalline form and occurs as small grains in some metamorphic rocks

2. a blue variety of spinel

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adjective

1. relating to or resembling sapphire

Etymology

Origin of sapphirine

1375–1425; late Middle English saphyryn (< Old French ) ≪ Greek sappheírinos like lapis lazuli ( see sapphire, -ine ¹); sapphirine ( def. 2 ) < German Saphirin ≪ Greek, as above

Example Sentences

Her sapphirine eyes searched the Berkshire hills again, "Something bigger and nobler—something which meant the entire sacrifice of self."

From The House of Mystery An Episode in the Career of Rosalie Le Grange, Clairvoyant by Irwin, Will

Now coasts with capes and ribboned beaches     Set silent 'neath the canopy sapphirine, And estuaries and river reaches.

From Poems - First Series by Squire, J. C. (John Collings)

He could not see that her lips pursed up as though to form certain low and tender words, and that her sapphirine eyes swept him before she controlled herself to go on.

From The House of Mystery An Episode in the Career of Rosalie Le Grange, Clairvoyant by Irwin, Will

A quick arrested expression in her two sapphirine eyes, accompanied by a little, a very little, blush which loitered long, was all the outward disturbance that the sight of her lover caused.

From A Laodicean : a Story of To-day by Hardy, Thomas

In this case also are the Aluminates of Magnesia, including the sapphirine; the chrysoberyls from Brazil, and those inclosed in quartz and felspar with garnets.

From How to See the British Museum in Four Visits by Jerrold, W. Blanchard