Also 4–5 adamaunt, -aund, ademaunt, -and; atha-, attha-, atthe-, attemant, -maunt, 5 admont, 6 adamounde. [a. literary OFr. adamaunt, ademaunt, ad. L. adamant-em (nom. adamas), a. Gr. ἀδάμας, ἀδάμαντ-α, orig. adj. = invincible (f. ἀ not + δαμά-ω I tame), afterwards a name of the hardest metal, prob. steel; also applied by Theophrastus to the hardest crystalline gem then known, the emery-stone of Naxos, ‘an amorphous form of corundum.’ In L. poetically for the hardest iron or steel, or anything very hard and indestructible; also, with Pliny, the name of a transparent crystalline gem of the hexahedral system, apparently corundum or white sapphire, but extended and at length transferred to the still harder DIAMOND (q.v.) after this became known in the West. The early med. L. writers apparently explaining the word from adamā-re ‘to take a liking to, have an attraction for,’ took the lapidem adamantem for the loadstone or magnet (an ore of iron, and thus also associated with the ancient metallic sense); and with this confusion the word passed into the modern languages. In OE. it occurs as aðamans, from med. L.; and in 13th c. as adamantines stan, a transl. of lapis adamantinus, with the adj. mistaken for a sb. in apposition to lapis, and so englished as stone of adamantin. In the current form it is a 14th-c. adoption of the literary Fr. adamaunt, ademaunt, adapted from the L. in place of the popular form aïmant (:—late L. *adimantem, cf. Pr. adiman, aziman, ayman, Sp. iman) loadstone, also found in Eng.; see AYMONT. Diamant arose as a variant of adamant or adimant; see DIAMOND.]
Name of an alleged rock or mineral, as to which vague, contradictory, and fabulous notions long prevailed. The properties ascribed to it show a confusion of ideas between the diamond (or other hard gems) and the loadstone or magnet, though by writers affecting better information, it was distinguished from one or other, or from both. The confusion with the loadstone ceased with the 17th c., and the word was then often used by scientific writers as a synonym of DIAMOND. In modern use it is only a poetical or rhetorical name for the embodiment of surpassing hardness; that which is impregnable to any application of force.
1. Without identification with any other substance.
c. 885. K. Ælfred, Greg. Past. (1871), 270. Se hearda stan, se þe aðamans hatte, ðone mon mid nane isene ceorfan ne mæʓ.
c. 1225. Hali Meidenhad, 37. Ha is hardre iheorted þen adamantines stan.
1382. Wyclif, Ezek. iii. 9. And Y ȝaue thi face as an adamaunt, and as a flynt.
c. 1386. Chaucer, Knt.’s T. (Ellesm.), 1132. The dore was al of Adamant eterne [v.r. ademauntz, athamant, atthemant, athamauntz, attemant]. Ibid., 447. Writen in the table of atthamaunt [v.r. athamaunte, athamaunt].
c. 1400. Rom. Rose, 4181. The stoon was hard of ademaunt.
1535. Coverdale, Zach. vii. 12. They made their hertes as an Adamant stone.
1579. Lyly, Euphues (1636), I. 8. The Adamant though it be so hard that nothing can bruise it, yet if the warme blood of a Goat be powred vpon it, it bursteth.
1667. Milton, P. L., II. 436. Gates of burning adamant Barred over us prohibit all egress.
1735. Somerville, The Chase, III. 605. On Rocks of Adamant it stands secure.
1783. Cowper, Lett., 24 Feb., Wks. 1876, 128. I am well in body but with a mind that would wear out a frame of adamant.
1852. Gladstone, Gleanings, IV. xxiii. 158. Here we impinge upon a dilemma hard as adamant.
1875. Farrar, Silence & Voices, Ser. I. 14. Around every step of our career on earth the mystery of the Infinite rises like a wall of adamant.
b. fig.
1642. R. Carpenter, Exper., II. vii. 178. For the bloud of Christ will breake the Adamant of his heart.
1828. Carlyle, Misc. (1857), I. 223. In collision with the sharp adamant of Fate.
1860. Motley, Netherl., I. ii. (1868), 47. The young King … was not adamant to the temptations spread for him.
† 2. Identified with the diamond. Obs.
1393. Gower, Conf., III. 112. The seconde [stone in the crown] is an adamant.
c. 1440. Promp. Parv., Adamant, precyowse stone, Adamas.
1598. Greene, James IV. (1861) 201. The adamant, O king, will not be fil’d But by itself.
1617. Fynes Moryson, I. III. i. 213. They say that Adamants are found here, which skilfull jewellers repute almost as precious as the Orientall.
1794. Sullivan, View of Nat., I. xxix. 438. The garnet, and diamond, or adamant.
† b. as the natural opposite of the loadstone. Obs.
1398. Trevisa, Barth. De P. R., XVI. viii. (1495), 557. This stone Adamas is dyuers and other than an Magnas, for yf an adamas be sette by yren it suffryth not the yren come to the magnas, but drawyth it by a manere of vyolence fro the magnas.
1567. Maplet, Greene Forest, 1. The Adamant placed neare any yron, will not suffer it to be drawen away of the Lode Stone.
1750. Leonardus’s Mirr. Stones, 63. The Adamant … is such an enemy to the magnet, that if it be bound to it, it will not attract iron.
† 3. Identified with the loadstone or magnet. Obs.
1366. [under 3 b].
c. 1400. Rom. Rose, 1182. Right as an adamaund, iwys, Can drawen to hym sotylly The yren.
1481. Caxton, Myrrour, II. vii. 79. In ynde groweth the Admont stone … she by her nature draweth to her yron.
1527. Whitinton, Gramm., Lapis ferrum attrahens, an adamounde stone, magnes.
1614. J. Cooke, City Gallant, in Hazl., Dodsl., II. 277. As true to thee as steel to adamant.
1656. Bp. Hall, Occas. Medit. (1851), 52. The grace of God’s Spirit, like the true loadstone or adamant, draws up the iron heart of man to it.
† b. as the natural opposite of the diamond. Obs.
1366. Maundev., xiv. 161. Aftre that, men taken the Ademand, that is the Schipmannes Ston, that drawethe the Nedle to him, and men leyn the Dyamand upon the Ademand, and leyn the Nedle before the Ademand; and ȝif the Dyamand be gode and vertuous, the Ademand drawethe not the Nedle to him, whils the Dyamand is there present.
1579. Lyly, Euphues, K 10. The Adamant cannot draw yron, if the Diamond lye by it.
† c. fig. A magnet, center of attraction. Obs.
1596. Drayton, Leg., III. 67. My Lookes so powerfull Adamants to Love.
1610. Histrio-mastix, II. 47. Your bookes are Adamants, and you the Iron That cleaves to them.
1622. Heylin, Cosmogr., Introd. 4/2 (1674). The seat of Religion is not the least Adamant which draws people to it.
1625. Bacon, Ess., xviii. 523. A great Adamant of Acquaintance.
† 4. Confusing 3 with 1 or 2. Obs.
1590. Shaks., Mids. N. D., II. i. 195. You draw me, you hard-hearted Adamant, But yet you draw not Iron, for my heart Is true as steele.
5. Attrib.
1387. Trevisa, Higden, Rolls Ser. I. 221. Adamant stones [L. lapides magnetes].
1535. Coverdale, Jer. xvii. 1. With a penne of yron & with an Adamant clawe.
1677. R. Gilpin, Dæmonol. Sacra (1867), 38. Which might make impressions upon an iron breast or an adamant heart.
1878. B. Taylor, Pr. Deukalion, I. vi. 50. Solid adamant walls Seem built against the Future that should be.
