Gem vs Pearl - What's the difference?
gem | pearl |
A precious stone, usually of substantial monetary value or prized for its beauty or shine.
* {{quote-magazine, date=2012-03
, author=Lee A. Groat
, title=Gemstones
, volume=100, issue=2, page=128
, magazine=
(figuratively) any precious or highly valued thing or person
Anything of small size, or expressed within brief limits, which is regarded as a gem on account of its beauty or value, such as a small picture, a verse of poetry, or an epigram.
(obsolete) a gemma or leaf-bud
* Denham
a type of geometrid moth, Orthonama obstipata
(computing) A package containing programs or libraries for the Ruby programming language.
To adorn with, or as if with, gems.
* {{quote-book, year=1827, author=Various, title=The Mirror of Literature, Amusement, and Instruction, Vol. 10,, chapter=, edition=
, passage=A few bright and beautiful stars gemmed the wide concave of heaven
* {{quote-book, year=1872, author=J. Fenimore Cooper, title=The Bravo, chapter=, edition=
, passage=Above was the firmament, gemmed with worlds, and sublime in immensity. }}
* {{quote-book, year=1920, author=John Freeman, title=Poems New and Old, chapter=, edition=
, passage=The rain Shook from fruit bushes in new showers again As I brushed past, and gemmed the window pane. }}
A shelly concretion, usually rounded, and having a brilliant luster, with varying tints, found in the mantle, or between the mantle and shell, of certain bivalve mollusks, especially in the pearl oysters and river mussels, and sometimes in certain univalves. It is usually due to a secretion of shelly substance around some irritating foreign particle. Its substance is the same as nacre, or mother-of-pearl. Round lustrous pearls are used in jewellery.
(figuratively) Something precious.
* Shakespeare
* 1920 , (Herman Cyril McNeile), Bulldog Drummond Chapter 1
A capsule of gelatin or similar substance containing liquid for e.g. medicinal application.
Nacre, or mother-of-pearl.
A whitish speck or film on the eye.
A fish allied to the turbot; the brill.
A light-colored tern.
One of the circle of tubercles which form the bur on a deer's antler.
(typography) Five-point size of type, between agate and diamond.
A fringe or border.
To set or adorn with pearls, or with mother-of-pearl. Used also figuratively.
To cause to resemble pearls; to make into small round grains; as, to pearl barley.
To resemble pearl or pearls.
To give or hunt for pearls; as, to go pearling.
(surfing) to dig the nose of one's surfboard into the water, often on takeoff.
* 1999, Joanne VanMeter [http://www.letsplay.net/archive99/020399.shtml]:
As a proper noun pearl is
from the english noun pearl.gem
English
(gemstone)Noun
(en noun)- (Milton)
citation, passage=Although there are dozens of different types of gems , among the best known and most important are diamond, ruby and sapphire, emerald and other gem forms of the mineral beryl, chrysoberyl, tanzanite, tsavorite, topaz and jade.}}
- She's an absolute gem .
- a gem of wit
- From the joints of thy prolific stem / A swelling knot is raised called a gem .
Synonyms
* (precious stone) gemstone, jewel, precious stone; see alsoVerb
citation
citation
citation
See also
*Anagrams
* * ----pearl
English
(wikipedia pearl)Noun
(en noun)- I see thee compassed with thy kingdom's pearl .
- Hugh helped himself to bacon. "My dear fellow, she can think what she likes so long as she continues to grill bacon like this. Your wife is a treasure, James—a pearl amongst women; and you can tell her so with my love."
- (Milton)
Verb
(en verb)- Used a pointed tip today and learned why I kept pearling with my round tipped board. Round noses like to dig into the water, causing frustrating wipeouts.