spinel

CEFRB2

/spɪˈnɛl/

noun

Türkçe translations

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In plain English

01
noun
A hard mineral often used as a gemstone.
02
noun
Extra detail
Any crystalline material, not necessarily an oxide, that possesses the same crystal structure as this mineral.

Examples

The garnets in the detritus are accompanied by zircon, spinel, corundum, cyanite, tourmaline, olivine, etc.
The jeweler set a rare red spinel into the gold ring.

At a glance

Sits at B2 on the CEFR scale

Deep Dive

Extra meanings

Spindle; the amount of yarn that fits on a spindle.
Any of several hard minerals of cubic symmetry that are mixed oxides of magnesium and aluminium and are used as gemstones of various colours.

In context

[…] raised the price of that staple of yarn (of one Spinel in the pound weight) from 23d. to 26d. per Spinel.
339, 612 yards of dimities, muslinets, jaconets, and booked muslins, from rod. to 20s. per yard, and, 4000. spinels of thread and yarn, were bleached by him in 1791, and 45 people were employed in the work.
... that is fit for any hundred of the reed; and like- wise the number of right telled yarn in spinels, slips, and cuts, that will be sufficient to make any number of ells from 1 to 60, subject, and merely consisted of tables or ready[…]

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The word in print, with each source given in full.

339, 612 yards of dimities, muslinets, jaconets, and booked muslins, from rod. to 20s. per yard, and, 4000. spinels of thread and yarn, were bleached by him in 1791, and 45 people were employed in the work.
1795, Sir John Sinclair, The Statistical Account of Scotland: Drawn Up from the Communications of the Ministers of the Different Parishes. By Sir John Sinclair, ..., page 70
Although there are dozens of different types of gems, among the best known and most important are […] . (Common gem materials not addressed in this article include amber, amethyst, chalcedony, garnet, lazurite, malachite, opals, peridot, rhodonite, spinel, tourmaline, turquoise and zircon.)
2012 March 26, Lee A. Groat, “Gemstones”, in American Scientist, volume 100, number 2, archived from the original on 14 Jun 2012, page 128
... that is fit for any hundred of the reed; and like- wise the number of right telled yarn in spinels, slips, and cuts, that will be sufficient to make any number of ells from 1 to 60, subject, and merely consisted of tables or ready[…]
1876, English Mechanic and Mirror of Science and Art, page 417

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French spinelle, perhaps from Latin spina (“a thorn, a prickle”), in allusion to its pointed crystals.