alabaster
alabaster. Massive, fine-grained partly translucent type of gypsum (calcium sulphate), coloured white, yellow, red, and brown, called bastard alabaster, often employed for church fittings and monuments. Oriental or calcareous alabaster is a translucent calcium carbonate, yellowish-white in colour, broken with milky veins. Thin slabs of oriental alabaster were often used in window-lights (especially in Italy), and the sarcophagus of Pharaoh Seti I, now in Sir John Soane's Museum, London, is made of this material.
alabaster
al·a·bas·ter / ˈaləˌbastər/ • n. a fine-grained, translucent form of gypsum, typically white, often carved into ornaments.• adj. made of alabaster. ∎ poetic/lit. like alabaster in whiteness and smoothness.
alabaster
alabaster Fine-grained, massive variety of gypsum (calcium sulphate), snow-white and translucent in its natural form. It can be dyed or made opaque by heating and is used for making statues and other ornaments.
alabaster
alabaster XIV. — OF. alabastre (mod. albâtre)- L. alabaster, -trum container for perfume — Gr. alábast(r)os.
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