Obs. [L., dim. of Gr. ἀστήρ star.] A kind of precious stone; ‘no description can better suit the asteriated crystals of sapphire, which exhibit a brilliant six-sided star in its centre’ (Westropp). Cf. ASTERIA, ASTROITE.
[c. 1300. Land Cokaygne, in E. E. P. (1862), 158. Carbuncle and astiune.]
1398. Trevisa, Barth. De P. R., XVI. xv. 558. Astrion is a precyous stone of Ynde nyghe lyke to crystall.
1567. Maplet, Gr. Forest, 3. Astrion is a gem … in whose centre … a certaine light is seene shining.
1601. Chester, Love’s Mar., lxxxviii. (1878), 101. Euidos, Iris, Dracontites, and Astrion.
1874. Westropp, Precious Stones, 65. Astrion—star sapphire.
