balas-ruby

noun

noun

A rose-coloured spinel once thought to be a type of ruby.

In shape it is a tiny square box of silver, studded outside with eight small balas-rubies.1888, Rudyard Kipling, “The Bisara of Pooree”, in Plain Tales from the Hills, Folio Society, published 2005, page 171:
Richard II had a coat, valued at thirty thousand marks, which was covered with balas rubies.1890, Oscar Wilde, The Picture of Dorian Gray, Vintage, published 2007, page 120:

Entry derived from the Wiktionary, under licence CC BY-SA 4.0 — list of authors.