a. and sb. Forms: 4–5 lapidaire, 4–6 Sc. lapidar, 4–7 lapidarie, -ye, (5 lapadary, lipidarye), 7 lapidare, -ery, 6– lapidary. [ad. L. lapidārius, f. lapid-, lapis stone. Cf. F. lapidaire. In B. 2 and 3 ad. L. lapidārium or L. type *lapidāria.]
A. adj.
1. Concerned with stones. rare exc. in lapidary bee (see quots. 1854–68).
1831–57. De Quincey, Dr. Parr, Wks. VI. 164. That lapidary style of retort in which their wrath has been trained to express itself.
1835. Court Mag., VI. 166/2. An Irish pavior expressed an anxiety to enter into partnership with a friend, who likewise followed the same lapidary profession.
1854. H. Miller, Sch. & Schm. (1858), 68. The lapidary red-tipped bees, that built amid the recesses of ancient cairns, and in old dry stone walls.
1868. Wood, Homes without H., vii. 138. The Lapidary Bee (Bombus lapidarius).
2. a. Of an inscription, etc.: Engraved on stone, esp. monumental stones. b. Of style, etc.: Characteristic of or suitable for monumental inscriptions.
1724. Life of Dr. Barwick, 40, note. See a farther Account of him … in Dr. Jenkins’s Lapidary Verses prefix’d to those Sermons.
1730. A. Gordon, Maffei’s Amphith., 147. These Words … expressed, in the Lapidary Stile, that it was built from its very Foundation.
1775. Johnson, in Boswell, Dec. In lapidary inscriptions a man is not upon oath.
1817. Lamb, Lett. to Ayrton, in Talfourd, Final Mem., x. 101. Tell me candidly how you relish This, which they call The lapidary style.
1822. Byron, Vis. Judgm., xii. He’s buried; save the undertaker’s bill, Or lapidary scrawl.
1838–9. Hallam, Hist. Lit., II. viii. II. § 63. 361. They were the encouragers of a numismatic and lapidary erudition.
1873. Tristram, Moab, vii. 135. If the new-comers had had any reverence for the lapidary records of their predecessors.
1899. Academy, 18 Feb., 210/2. A stanza [which] has a lapidary dignity, as of some thing carved in stone.
B. sb.
1. One busied about or concerned with stones.
a. An artificer who cuts, polishes, or engraves gems or precious stones.
1382. Wyclif, Ecclus. xlv. 13. With werk of the lapidarie grauun.
1500–20. Dunbar, Poems, lxiii. 15. Glasing wrichtis, goldsmythis, and lapidaris.
1555. Eden, Decades, 233. The region of Malabar where are many cunnynge Lapidaries.
1624. Fletcher, Rule a Wife, V. ii. An excellent lapidary set those stones sure.
1684. Winstanley, in Shaks. C. Praise, 401. Cornish Diamonds are not Polished by any Lapidary.
1753. Smollett, Ct. Fathom (1784), 92/2. Ratchkali, who was an exquisite lapidary, had set it in such a manner, as would have imposed upon any ordinary jeweller.
1860. Tyndall, Glac., I. xx. 141. Portions of the vertical walls … are polished … as if they had come from the hands of a lapidary.
1869. Boutell, Arms & Arm., v. (1874), 81. The productions of the sculptor and the lapidary.
† b. One who is skilled in the nature and kinds of gems or precious stones; a connoisseur of lapidary work. Obs.
c. 1440. Gesta Rom., xxiv. 89 (Harl. MS.). He went to a lapadary, that was expert in the vertue of stonys.
1577. Stanyhurst, Descr. Irel., Ep. Ded., in Holinshed. If it shall stand with your honor his pleasure (whom I take to be an expert lapidarie).
1639. G. Daniel, Ecclus. xxxii. 14. The bright Carbuncle (whose wondrous flame Pussles the skillfull Lapidare to Name).
a. 1658. Cleveland, Gen. Poems (1677), 166. The Lapidary tells you how the Compassionate Turcoise confesseth the Sickness of his Wearer by changing colour.
1750. trans. Leonardus’ Mirr. Stones, 145 (225). I find twelve species of the emerald described by lapidaries.
1796. Kirwan, Elem. Min. (ed. 2), I. 361. This name [Pudding stone] was invented by English Lapidaries.
2. A treatise on (precious) stones. Obs. exc. Hist.
c. 1375. Sc. Leg. Saints, Margaret, 2. Qwa wil þe vertu wyt of stanis In þe lapidar ma fynd ane is [etc.].
c. 1384. Chaucer, H. Fame, III. 262. The fynest stones faire That men reden in the lapidaire.
c. 1440. Lydg., Secrees, 539. I dar seyn breffly, and nat tarye, Is noon suych stoon ffound in the lapydarye.
1652. Ashmole, Theat. Chem., 221. Alle Stonys in the lapidery.
1884. Symonds, Shaks. Predecessors, xiii. 512. The Bestiaries and Lapidaries of the Middle Ages.
† 3. collect. [after sbs. in -ERY.] Precious stones in general; jewellery. Obs.
1509. Barclay, Shyp of Folys (1570), 43. There is no … Carbuncle, Rubie,… Nor other lapidary comparable to me.
1609. Armin, Maids of More-Cl., F 4. A iewell … Whose liuing beauty staind all lapidary.
4. attrib., as lapidary(’s-mill, -wheel, the grinding and polishing apparatus of the lapidary.
1839. Ure, Dict. Arts, 738. The lapidary’s mill, or wheel.
1875. Knight, Dict. Mech., Lapidary-mill, Lapidary-wheel.
1878. Huxley, Physiogr., 58. As though they [the crystals] had just been polished at the lapidary’s wheel.
