alabaster: [14] Chaucer was the first English author to use the word alabaster: in the Knight’s Tale (1386) he writes of ‘a(chǎn)labaster white and red coral’. It comes, via Old French and Latin, from Greek alábast(r)os, which may be of Egyptian origin. Scottish English used the variant from alabast until the 16th century (indeed, this may predate alabaster by a few years); and from the 16th to the 17th century the word was usually spelled alablaster, apparently owing to confusion with arblaster ‘crossbowman’.
The use of alabaster for making marbles (of the sort used in children’s games) gave rise to the abbreviation alley, ally ‘marble’ in the early 18th century.
alabaster (n.)
translucent whitish kind of gypsum used for vases, ornaments, and busts, late 14c., from Old French alabastre (12c., Modern French albatre), from Latin alabaster "colored rock used to make boxes and vessels for unguents," from Greek alabastros (earlier albatos) "vase for perfumes," perhaps from Egyptian 'a-labaste "vessel of the goddess Bast." Used figuratively for whiteness and smoothness from 1570s. "The spelling in 16-17th c. is almost always alablaster ..." [OED].
雙語例句
1. She wore a fine chain about her alabaster neck.
她細(xì)膩光滑、美麗白皙的脖子上戴著一條精致的鏈子。
來自柯林斯例句
2. The floor was marble tile, and the columns alabaster.
地板是由大理石鋪成的, 柱子則是雪花石膏打造而成.
來自互聯(lián)網(wǎng)
3. The trees, the bushes and the tall ferns are carved with alabaster.
無論喬木 、 灌木還是蕨草,都似玉砌冰雕.
來自互聯(lián)網(wǎng)
4. Rosette gives the impression of alabaster wax suffused with violet.