red diamond.
The rarest of all fancy-colored diamonds are red ones, and so any red-brown or rose-colored diamond is often called a red diamond. No really ruby-colored diamonds have ever been reported.
—The Book of Diamonds, by Joan Dickinson, 1965.
rhinestone.
The name now given to colorless lead-glass brilliant-cut or single-cut imitation diamond. Once rhinestone was only applied to colorless quartz crystals from the Rhine River valley in Germany; when highly dispersive glass became available, it was substituted for the quartz.
—The Book of Diamonds, by Joan Dickinson, 1965.
rose cut.
An early style of cutting. It is usually rose shaped, that is, it has a flat base, and a domelike top with a variety of triangular facets resembling petals which come to a small point at the center like a rosebud. Also called a rosette.
—The Book of Diamonds, by Joan Dickinson, 1965.
scintillation.
The flashing or twinkling of light which in diamonds comes from the facets. Comparative scintiallation of two diamonds can be measured by the number of facets on the stone and the quality of their polish.
—The Book of Diamonds, by Joan Dickinson, 1965.
transichromatic.
Possessing the ability to change color temporarily. Some diamonds change color when brought into dayilight after being kept in darkness for a long timesay in a vaultand then change back to the original color after a few hours. Others change color under X-ray.
—The Book of Diamonds, by Joan Dickinson, 1965.
treated diamond.
A diamond that has been coated or otherwise treated to improve its appearance, including those diamonds bombarded for color changes.
—The Book of Diamonds, by Joan Dickinson, 1965.
very slightly imperfect.
A fine jeweler will use this term to mean that he can see flaws in a diamond under his special loupe that you cant. Very, very slightly flawless means it is difficult for even a trained eye with a ten power loupe to find the flawsbut they are there.
—The Book of Diamonds, by Joan Dickinson, 1965.
water.
A term principally used in England or in English literature for the color and transparency of diamonds and other gems. It is of the finest water, or It is a ruby of the second water.
—The Book of Diamonds, by Joan Dickinson, 1965.
yellow diamond.
A yellow diamond which may be canary or champagne.
—The Book of Diamonds, by Joan Dickinson, 1965.
the allure of absinthe
The allure of absinthe was threefold. One, its history; so many of the great writers and painters that I admired, from Verlaine and Wilde to van Gogh and Picasso, adored absinthe. Two, it was illegal in the United States. Three, better than any other alcohol I know, it created in me that most appealing state of languidness, dissolving muscle and mind so that I didnt really care what happened or didnt happen to me. So, while I enjoyed the way it made colors appear brighter and created halos around anything bright, the way it made the night sky itself fsem to breathe like a giant beast crouched over me, I became hooked on absinthe because it allowed me to escape, the way that reading allowed me to escape.
—Elissa Schappell, from That Sort of Woman, 2003, an essay in The Mrs. Dalloway Reader, edited by Francine Prose, 2003.