Forms: 4 alabaustre, alabast, 4–6 alabastre, 6 aliblaster, 6–7 alablaster, 4– alabaster. [a. OFr. alabastre (mod. Fr. albâtre), ad. L. alabaster, -trum, a. Gr. ἀλάβαστρος, prop. ἀλάβαστος; said to be from name of a town in Egypt. The spelling in 16–17th c. is almost always alablaster; app. due to a confusion with arblaster a cross-bowman, also written alablaster.]
A term applied to fine translucent varieties of carbonate or sulphate of lime, especially to the pure white variety of the latter used for vases, ornaments and busts. In Mineralogy, massive fine-grained sulphate of lime or gypsum, occurring white, yellow, red, or delicately shaded (Modern or Gypseous Alabaster); as distinguished from the translucent or variegated varieties of stalagmitic carbonate of lime, included under the name by the ancients, and used by them for holding unguents (Oriental or Calcareous alabaster).
1375. Barbour, Bruce, XX. 588. Schir archibald his sone gert syne Of alabast [v.r. alabastre] bath fair and fyne, Ordane a towme full richly.
c. 1386. Chaucer, Knt.’s T., 1052. Of alabaster whit and reed coralle [v.r. alabastre].
c. 1440. Promp. Parv., Alabaster, a stone, Alabastrum, Parium.
1596. Shaks., Merch. Ven., I. i. 84. Why should a man whose bloud is warme within Sit like his Grandsire cut in Alablaster?
1600. Dekker, Fortun., Wks. I. 124. It were better to let the memory of him shine in his owne vertues … than in Alablaster.
1771. Smollett, Humph. Cl. (1815), 96. He had a skin as fair as alabaster.
1870. Yeats, Nat. Hist. Comm., 374. Statuary Alabaster is obtained from the Miocene and Pliocene strata in Tuscany and in Egypt.
1875. Ure, Dict. Arts, I. 41. The Oriental alabaster, or alabaster of the ancients, is to be carefully distinguished from the mineral now commonly known as alabaster; the former is a carbonate, the latter a sulphate of lime.
2. A box made of alabaster in which the ancients sealed up unguents; often with L. pl. alabastra.
1398. Trevisa, Barth. De P. R., XIX. cxxviii. (1495), 933. Alabastrum is a vessell for oyntment.
1753. Chambers, Cycl. Supp., s.v., Others define alabaster by a box without a handle, deriving the word from the privative α and λαβη handle.
1861. King, Antique Gems (1866), 88. Little jars for holding perfumes, which were called alabastra.
† 3. An ancient liquid measure. Obs.
1753. Chambers, Cycl. Supp., Alabaster is also said to have been used for an ancient liquid measure, containing 10 ounces of wine or 9 of oil … In this sense the alabaster was equal to half the sextary.
B. adj. (orig. attrib. use of sb.)
a. Of alabaster, as a material.
1526. Tindale, Matt. xxvi. 7. A woman, which had an alablaster boxe of precious oyntment. [Genev., Rhem., 1611, alabaster box; Wyclif, boxe of alabastre.]
1605. Delightes for Ladies, 29. Take your beries and grinde them in a Alablaster morter.
1815. Scott, Ld. of Isles, III. xxviii. Mermaid’s Alabaster-grot.
1864. Boutell, Heraldry, xx. 338. The very perfect alabaster effigy of a knight.
b. Like alabaster, in whiteness, smoothness, etc.
1580. Sidney, Arcadia (1622), 427. [He] set his dagger to her Alablaster throate.
1594. Shaks., Rich. III., IV. iii. 11. Gentle babes … girdling one another Within their alablaster innocent arms.
1616. Surflet & Markh., Countrey Farme, 417. Tender or delicate pear, such as alabaster pear.
1649. Lovelace, Poems (1659), 63. Thy Alablaster Lady will come home.
1851. Ruskin, Stones Ven. (1874), I. xxi. 239. Look at the clouds, and watch the delicate sculpture of their alabaster sides.
