Forms: 6–7 agath, agget, agot, 6–8 agat, 7 agett, aggott, (nagget), 8 aggat, aggot, 7– agate. [a. 16th c. Fr. agathe, ad. It. ágatha, ágata, f. L. achātes (a. Gr. ἀχάτης), whence earlier Fr. acate, acathe, and Eng. ACHATE, also in use.]
1. A precious stone; a name applied to the semipellucid variegated chalcedonies, with the colors disposed in parallel stripes or bands, or blended in clouds, and often with curious markings due to the infiltration of other minerals; from these variations in appearance, lapidaries distinguish many varieties, as moss agate, ribbon agate, eye agate, fortification agate, zoned or banded agate, variegated agate, brecciated agate, etc.
1570. B. Googe, Pop. Kingd., IV. (1880), 39 b. Jaspers, Chrysolytes and Agats doe appere.
1621. Lady A. Drury, in Bury Wills (1850), 166. To my sister Gawdie, my agett and pearle chaine.
1646. Sir T. Browne, Pseud. Ep., 381. Many fair rooms paved with Agath.
1716–8. Lady M. W. Montague, Lett., I. xiv. 49. A large collection of agates … of an uncommon size.
1789. Burney, Hist. Music (ed. 2), IV. v. 181. Tile them with gold and pave them with aggots.
1865. Livingstone, Zambesi, xii. 261. The ground is strewn with agates for a number of miles above the falls.
† 2. fig. A very diminutive person, in allusion to small figures cut in agates for seals. Obs.
1597. Shaks., 2 Hen. IV., I. ii. 19. I was neuer mann’d with an Agot till now. Ibid. (1599), Much Ado, III. i. 65. If tall, a launce ill-headed: If low, an agot very vildlie cut.
3. An instrument used by gold-wire-drawers, having an agate fixed in it for burnishing. Cf. A glazier’s diamond.
1751. Chambers, Cycl., s.v., The gold wire drawers burnish their gold with an Agat; whence the instrument, made use of on that occasion, is also called an Agat.
4. Typog. The American name of the type called in England ruby.
1871. Ringwalt, Encycl. Print., 24. Agate, the American name for a size of type between Nonpareil and Pearl, and of which there are about fourteen lines to an inch.
5. Sometimes erroneously confused with gagates, jet.
1661. Lovell, Hist. Anim. & Min., 53. Of Sulphurs, Agath, Gagates. It’s … of a black, stony earth, full of bitumen.
6. Comb. and Attrib. agate-jasper, a jasper veined or clouded with agate or chalcedony; agate-onyx (see quot.); agate-ring, one made of, or set with, an agate; agate-shell, a collector’s name for the tropical genus of land-shells, Achatina. Also agate cup, hole, mill, stone, trade, work, etc.; agate eyes; agate-bearing, -forming, -handle(d), etc.
1747. Dingley, Gems, in Phil. Trans., XLIV. 505. The Agat-Onyx, of two or more Strata of white, either opaque or transparent.
1874. Westropp, Prec. Stones, 46. Agate-onyx, a variety of onyx in which the upper layer is opaque and white, the lower transparent, and either colourless or a pale yellow. This is the material most frequently employed for modern carving, and is often termed the German onyx.
1596. Shaks., 1 Hen. IV., II. iv. 78. This … Not-pated, Agat ring, Puke stocking, Caddice garter, Smooth tongue, Spanish pouch.
1634. Unton Inventories, 32. I give and bequeath … my nagget cup.
1863. Tyndall, Heat, i. 30. The wires should be drawn through agate holes.
1875. Ure, Dict. Arts, I. 35. It is in the Idar valley, that most of the agate-mills are situated.
1592. Shaks., Rom. & Jul., I. iv. 55. In shape no bigger then Agat-stone, on the fore-finger of an Alderman.
1876. Geo. Eliot, Dan. Der., IV. li. 16. Deepest agate eyes.
1875. Ure, Dict. Arts, I. 32. The igneous origin of the agate-bearing melaphyres.
1710. Steele, Tatler, No. 245, ¶ 2. An Aggat-Handle Knife.
