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What is a touchstone etymology?
What is a touchstone used for?
When was Touchstone first used?
What is a gold Touchstone?
May 17, 2024 · touchstone. (n.) "fine-grained black stone quartz used for testing the quality of gold and silver alloys," late 15c., from touch (v.) in the Middle English sense "to test" (metal) on a touchstone + stone (n.).
The earliest known use of the word touchstone is in the Middle English period (1150—1500). OED's earliest evidence for touchstone is from around 1482–3, in Accounts of the Exchequer of the King's Remembrancer.
A touchstone is a small tablet of dark stone such as fieldstone, slate, or lydite, used for assaying precious metal alloys. It has a finely grained surface on which soft metals leave a visible trace.
In its etymology, 'touchstone' reflects its historical use as a stone upon which precious metals were rubbed to assess their purity and authenticity by the mark they left behind.
Since the early 16th century, touchstone has referred to a particular kind of siliceous stone (that is, stone containing silica) used to do a particular job: determine the purity of precious metals. The process involves comparing marks made by rubbing a sample of a metal of known purity to marks made by a metal of unknown purity.
Where does the word touchstone come from? According to that most wonderful of resources Wikipedia , a touchstone is an actual stone. More precisely, it’s a small stone tablet used to determine the quality of precious metals like gold and silver.
TOUCHSTONE definition: 1. an established standard or principle by which something is judged: 2. an established standard…. Learn more.
