Min. Also 6–7 sparr. [ad. MLG. spar, sper (also in combs. sparglas, -kalk, MHG. sparchalch), related to OE. spæren gypsum, spærstán SPAR-STONE.]
1. A general term for a number of crystalline minerals more or less lustrous in appearance and admitting of easy cleavage.
A large number of varieties are distinguished by special epithets, as bitter, Bolognian, brown, calcareous, Derbyshire, Iceland, pearl, ponderous, rhomb, tabular: see these words and CALC-, FELD-, FLUOR-, HEAVY SPAR.
1581. in Trans. Jewish Hist. Soc. Eng. (1903), IV. 96. In our copper ures were … a kinde of black stone (wherin the copper groweth), and a kinde of white stone named sparr.
1631. Jorden, Nat. Bathes, xvi. (1669), 45. Sparr, which the Dutch call Sput or Querts, shoots into points like Diamonds.
1653. Manlove, Customs Lead-mines, 265 (E. D. S.). Cauke, Sparr, Lid-stones, Twitches, Daulings, and Pees.
1672. Boyle, Ess. Gems, 91. The clear Spar, which in most of our Western Lead-Mines in England is found next to the Metalline Veins.
1756. C. Lucas, Ess. Waters, III. 236. All perfectly petrified; some into bright crystallised spar.
1774. Goldsm., Nat. Hist. (1776), I. 66. The pendent rocks were glazed with spar.
1832. Tennyson, Œnone, 82, in Poems (1833), 55. Within the green hillside … Is an ingoing grotto, strown with spar.
1867. S. W. Baker, Nile Trib., xvii. (1872), 304. Immense quantities of very beautiful spar lay upon the surface in all directions.
b. pl. Different varieties of this.
1668. Charleton, Onomast., 274. Fluores,… Spars.
1695. Woodward, Nat. Hist. Earth, IV. 179. Gemms or Stones that are here shot into Cubes…, the Bristow-Stones, Crystallized Sparrs, the Iris,… and several others.
1797. Monthly Mag., III. 203. Matlock is much noted for its … curious spars and fossils.
1814. Scott, Lord of Isles, III. xxviii. And o’er his head the dazzling spars Gleam like a firmament of stars!
1823. Byron, Island, II. vii. Or cavern sparkling with its native spars.
2. a. A fragment or particle of spar. Also transf.
1855. [Miss Cobbe], Ess. Intuitive Morals, 117. The waters of our spiritual life … stand in need of rocks and falls or at least of spars or pebbles, to freshen them by their resistance.
1873. Dixon, Two Queens, XVI. i. III. 186. Love, romance, generosity, were as foreign to the soul of Charles as to a spar of ice.
b. An ornament made of spar.
1851. Mayhew, Lond. Labour, I. 370/2. ‘Spars,’ as spar ornaments are called by the street-sellers. Ibid., 371/1. Some street-sellers have their spars in covered barrows.
3. attrib. and Comb., as spar-like adj., -lode, ornament, -rider, -seller.
1700. ? Mackworth, Disc. Mine-Adventure, 2nd Abstract, 12. We are Sumping and driving in the new Work in good firm, mixed hard and soft Oar, and the Spar-rider continues to under cut in Oar.
1778. W. Pryce, Min. Cornub., 91. This being a hard unmetallick petrifaction, thence called a Spar Lode by those unacquainted with real Spar.
1797. Encycl. Brit. (ed. 3), VI. 230/1. The spar-like gypsum, marmor metallicum.
1851. Mayhew, Lond. Labour, I. 370/2. The spar-sellers carried their goods done up in paper, in strong baskets on their heads. Ibid., 371/1. Some of the spar ornaments are plain, white, and smooth.
