the.com/lazuli
The blue so precious it was ground up to paint the Virgin Mary's robe.
means A deep, vivid blue, properly 'lapis lazuli' — the rich azure of the semi-precious stone itself.
from From Medieval Latin 'lapis lazuli,' literally 'stone of azure.' The 'lapis' is just Latin for stone, but 'lazuli' traces back through Medieval Latin 'lazulum' to Arabic 'lāzaward,' borrowed in turn from Persian 'lāzhward' — the name of the place (and the stone) that gave the color its name. That Persian root is also the distant ancestor of our word 'azure,' making lazuli and azure old linguistic cousins both born from the same glowing blue rock.
- full name
- short for lapis lazuli, Latin for blue stone
- pigment history
- became ultramarine, pricier than gold per ounce
- main source
- mined in Afghanistan for over 6000 years
- bird namesake
- lazuli bunting borrows the color, not the rock