lapis lazuli
adjEtymology From Middle English lapis lazuli, from Medieval Latin lapis (“stone”) + lazulī, genitive singular of lazulum (“lapis lazuli, azure, the sky”), from Arabic لَازُوَرْد (lāzuward, “lapis lazuli, azure”), from Persian لاجورد (lâjvard). Compare azure, of the same origin.
1
Of a deep, bright blue, like that of the stone.
- I cannot convey to you the sheer and surreal scale of everything: the towering ship, the ropes, the ties, the anchor, the pier, the vast lapis lazuli dome of the sky.1997, David Foster Wallace, “A Supposedly Fun Thing I'll Never Do Again”, in A Supposedly Fun Thing I'll Never Do Again, Kindle edition, Little, Brown Book Group:
- Related terms
- azure, lazurite, sodium aluminum sulfosilicate, ultramarine