balas-ruby

balas-ruby

See also: balas ruby

English

Noun

balas-ruby (plural balas-rubies)

1. A rose-coloured spinel once thought to be a type of ruby.
   • 1888, Rudyard Kipling, ‘The Bisara of Pooree’, Plain Tales from the Hills, Folio Society 2005, p. 171:

     In shape it is a tiny square box of silver, studded outside with eight small balas-rubies.

   • 1890, Oscar Wilde, The Picture of Dorian Gray, Vintage 2007, p. 120:

     Richard II had a coat, valued at thirty thousand marks, which was covered with balas rubies.

Translations

variety of ruby

French: rubis balais m German: Balas-Rubin m Italian: balascio m Latin: balascus m (medieval) Persian: بدخش‎ (badaxš)