Min. Also tour-, turmalin, -ine, (tormaline). [= F. tourmaline (1771 in Dict. Trev.), Ger. turmalin (1707, Garmann), Du. toermalijn (1778), It., Sp. turmalina; all ultimately f. Sinhalese tòramalli, according to Clough ‘a general name for the cornelian.’ The origin of the European final -n(e is obscure: cf. mandarin, talapoin, etc. The better (18th c.) English spelling was tour-, turmalin; the spelling -ine is in imitation of French, in which the e merely supports the n.] A brittle pyro-electric mineral, occurring in crystals, also massive, compact, and columnar, originally obtained from Ceylon; a complex silicoborate with a vitreous luster, usually black or blackish and opaque (SCHORL), but also blue (INDICOLITE), red (RUBELLITE), green, or colorless, and in various rich transparent or semi-transparent shades, known as precious tourmaline, and much used as a gem. Also formerly called, from its electrical properties, ash-drawer, Du. aschentrecker, Ger. aschenzieher, F. tire-cendre.
1759. B. Wilson, in Phil. Trans., LI. I. 308. I have the pleasure to communicate to you some experiments made upon the Tourmalin, or Ashstone.
1794. Sullivan, View Nat., I. 440. The tourmaline is a variety of the schoerl.
1798. Edgeworth, Pract. Educ. (1811), II. 294. A small electrical stone called tourmalin.
1799. Kirwan, Geol. Ess., 121. All … lose some part of their weight when exposed to a strong heat…; turmaline loses 15 per cent.
1812. Sir H. Davy, Chem. Philos., 131. There is a stone … called tourmaline, which is sometimes crystallized as a nine-sided prism, terminated by a three-sided and a six-sided pyramid.
1825. Heber, Jrnl., xxvii. (ed. 2), 189. The topaz, ruby, tormaline, diamond, and various others.
1853. Th. Ross, Humboldt’s Trav., III. xxxii. 382. The granite is traversed by … veins … abounding with rock-crystal, black tourmalin, and pyrites.
1866. Ruskin, Eth. Dust, ix. 179. This black thing,… one of the prettiest of the very few pretty black things in the world, is called ‘Tourmaline.’
1888. Rutley, Rock-Forming Min., 38. A plate of tourmaline cut parallel to the principal axis.
b. With a and pl. A specimen or gem of this mineral; also a transparent plate of tourmaline cut parallel to the vertical crystal axis, used in polariscopes, etc.
1816. P. Cleaveland, Min., 261. When a Tourmaline is viewed perpendicularly to the sides of the prism, it is more or less transparent, but, if observed in the direction of the axis, it is opaque.
1843–54. Pereira, Pol. Light (ed. 2), 211. If the two tourmalines be crossed the rays are suppressed—if they coincide the rays are transmitted.
1890. Academy, 12 April, 252/1. It [a bracelet] consists of a broad and heavy band of Californian gold, set with two large tourmalines.
c. attrib. and Comb., as tourmaline crystal, granite, pendant; tourmaline pincette, tongs, a simple polariscope, consisting of tongs having a plate of tourmaline mounted in each grasping jaw; tourmaline-rock, -schist: see quots. 1882.
1843–54. Pereira, Pol. Light (ed. 2), 213. The two sets of rays successively pass through the tourmaline analyzing plate.
1879. Rutley, Stud. Rocks, x. 138. The terminations of tourmaline crystals are frequently composed of a great number of faces.
1882. Geikie, Text-bk. Geol. (1885), 73. Tourmaline … with quartz forms tourmaline-rock. Ibid., 131. Tourmaline-schist…, a blackish, finely granular, quartzose rock with abundant granules and needles of black tourmaline.
1838. Rutley, Rock-Forming Min., 59. The tourmaline pincette, or tongs.
Hence Tourmalinic a., pertaining to, of the nature of, or consisting of tourmaline; Tourmalinite Min., tourmaline; Tourmalinize v. trans. to impregnate or charge with tourmaline.
1879. Dana, Man. Geol. (ed. 3), 70. Tourmalinic, containing tourmaline.
1896. Chester, Dict. Names Min., Tourmalinite, variant of tourmaline.
1908. Amer. Jrnl. Sc., April, 323. Along the margin … the granite is often strongly tourmalinized.
