English
alabaster
Alabaster comes from Latin alabaster ‘box for perfumes or unguents’, and goes back to Ancient Greek ἀλάβαστος.
- Ancient Greekc. 800–300 BCEἀλάβαστοςalábastos‘vase without handles for storing perfumes’
- Ancient Greek, derivedc. 800–300 BCEἀλάβαστροςalábastros
- Latinc. 75 BCE–200 CEalabaster‘box for perfumes or unguents’
- Old Frenchc. 842–1400alabastre
- Middle Englishc. 1150–1500same form
- Englishearliest quotation 1594alabaster
attested reconstructed ? uncertain or disputed
Earlier history uncertain.
Lineage
- Ancient Greekc. 800–300 BCEἀλάβαστοςalábastos‘vase without handles for storing perfumes’
- Ancient Greek, derivedc. 800–300 BCEἀλάβαστροςalábastros
- Latinc. 75 BCE–200 CEalabaster‘box for perfumes or unguents’
- Old Frenchc. 842–1400alabastre
- Middle Englishc. 1150–1500same form
- Englishearliest quotation 1594alabaster
Earliest quotation: 1594, William Shakespeare, Lucrece (First Quarto): “With more than admiration he admir’d Her azure veins,…”
The story
This may further derive from Egyptian ꜥj-r-bꜣstjt (‘vessel of the Egyptian goddess Bast’). The Latin suffix -aster is unrelated, but may have influenced the spelling of the borrowing from Ancient Greek (whence a direct loan could have been rendered as *alabastrus).
Every English word from Ancient Greek ἀλάβαστος
Today it means
noun A fine-grained white or lightly-tinted variety of gypsum, used ornamentally.
Language periods are conventional ranges, not dates for this word.
Etymograph / Ancient Greek ἀλάβαστος / alabaster