Forms: α. 4–8 asbeston, abeston, 4–5 abiston, 4–7 albeston(e; β. 6 absistos, 7 asphestus, 7–9 asbestos, asbestus; γ. 8 abestos, -istos; δ. 7 abbest, 7– asbest. [The mod. form is a. L. asbestos (mod.L. asbestus), a. Gr. ἄσβεστος, prop. adj. ‘inextinguishable, unquenchable,’ f. ἀ not + σβεστ-ός, f. σβεν-νύ-ναι to quench. OF. had also, adopted from L., asbestos, later abestos, whence an Eng. form abestos; but the common OF. form was a. L. acc. asbeston, phonetically changed to abeston, and (by confusion with albus white) albeston; hence the earlier Eng. forms asbeston, abeston, abiston, albeston, and (by assimilation to stone) albestone, Mod.Fr. is asbeste, formerly also abeste, whence Eng. abest, abbest, asbest. The current form is asbestos, -us; asbe·st, a·sbest remain in poetry.]
As a sb. Asbestos was applied by Dioscorides to quicklime (‘unslaked’). Erroneously applied by Pliny to an incombustible fiber, which he believed to be vegetable, but which was really the Amiantos of the Greeks. Since the identification of this, Asbestos has been a more popular synonym for Amiantus or Amiant.
† 1. ‘The unquenchable stone’; a fabulous stone, the heat of which, whence once kindled, was alleged to be unquenchable. (A distorted reference to the phenomena observed in pouring cold water on quick lime.) Obs.
1387. Trevisa, Higden (Rolls Ser.), 187. Asbeston þat wil neuere quenche, be it ones i-tend. Ibid. (1398), Barth. De P. R., XVI. xi. (1495), 558. Of albestone … was made a candyll sticke on whiche was a lantern so brennynge that it myght not be quenched wyth tempeste nother with reyne.
1567. Maplet, Gr. Forest, 2. Albeston is a stone of Archadie. Ibid., 2 b. The precious stone Absistos … being once heate, keepeth hote seauen whole dayes.
1610. Gwillim, Heraldry, IV. ix. (1660), 307. A certain Kind of Stone that is found in Arcadia … called Asphestus.
1627. H. Burton, Bait. Pope’s Bull, 63. The stone Asbestos … once inflamed, cannot be quenched againe.
1750. Leonardus’s Mirr. Stones, 70. Abeston or Abestus … from its being inextinguishable.
† 2. An alleged kind of incombustible flax. Obs.
(An erroneous notion of the mineral substance in 3.)
a. 1661. Holyday, Juvenal, 207. A sheet made of a kind of flax, call’d asbestinum, and asbeston … of that nature, that it is not consum’d, but only cleans’d, by the fire.
1734. trans. Rollin’s Anc. Hist. Pliny gives the first place to the asbeston, the incombustible flax.
3. A mineral of fibrous texture, capable of being woven into an incombustible fabric; AMIANT or AMIANTUS. In Min. applied more widely than Amiantus, to all fibrous varieties of Hornblende or Amphibole, and of Pyroxene; Amiantus being specifically the finest Hornblende Asbestos, distinguished by its long silky fibres, usually pearly white.
1607. Topsell, Serpents, 749. This kinde of web rather cometh of a kinde of flax that Pliny writeth of, or rather of the Amiantus-stone, called the Asbest, which … being cast into a fire, seems to be forthwith all in a flame, but being taken out again, it shineth the more gloriously.
1609. Heywood, Bryt. Troy, I. lxviii. An abbest stone into the bole was brayed.
1667. Phil. Trans., II. 486. Of Asbestus, that can be drawn and spun.
1783. Wedgwood, ibid., LXXIII. 286. Filaments … of asbestos, which suffer no change in a moderate red heat.
c. 1815. Southey, Yng. Dragon, I. Wks. VI. 263. With amianth he lined the nest, And incombustible asbest.
1878. T. Bryant, Pract. Surg., I. 130. Nitric acid applied on lint or asbestos.
1879. Rutley, Stud. Rocks, x. 131. Asbestus or amianthus is a fibrous variety of pyroxene, occurring in white silky fibres.
4. fig.
1831. Carlyle, Misc. (1857), II. 337. Woe to him whose Edifice is not built of true Asbest.
1835. Greswell, Exp. Parables, V. II. 414.
| Religion’s holy lamp: | |
| Unspent to burn, with sacred asbest fed. |
5. attrib. (lit. and fig.)
1599. Greene, Alphonsus (1861), 232. My mind is like to the asbeston-stone.
c. 1795. Southey, Love Eleg., ii. Wks. II. 123. Fly, Salamanders, on Asbestos’ wings, To wanton in my Delia’s fiery glance.
1861. Sala, Tw. round Clock, 83. Asbestos stoves, gas cooking ranges.
